Tuned rf energy and electrical tissue characterization for selective treatment of target tissues

ABSTRACT

A catheter and catheter system can use energy tailored for remodeling and/or removal of target material along a body lumen, often of atherosclerotic material of a blood vessel of a patient. An elongate flexible catheter body with a radially expandable structure may have a plurality of electrodes or other electrosurgical energy delivery surfaces to radially engage atherosclerotic material when the structure expands. An atherosclerotic material detector system may measure and/or characterize the atherosclerotic material and its location, optionally using impedance monitoring.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/831,680, filed on Mar. 15, 2013, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/975,651, filed on Oct. 18, 2007, whichclaims the benefit under 35 USC 119(e) of U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 60/852,787, filed on Oct. 18, 2006, and entitled “Tuned RF EnergyAnd Electrical Tissue Characterization For Selective Treatment Of TargetTissues”; and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/921,973, filed on Apr.4, 2007, and entitled “Tuned RF Energy And Electrical TissueCharacterization For Selective Treatment Of Target Tissues”, the fulldisclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/392,231, filed on Mar. 28, 2006; which claims the benefit under 35USC 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/666,766, filed on Mar.28, 2005, and entitled “Tuned RF Energy for Selective Treatment ofAtheroma and Other Target Tissues and/or Structures”; and is related toU.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/938,138, filed on Sep. 10, 2004, andentitled “Selectable Eccentric Remodeling and/or Ablation ofAtherosclerotic Material”; U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/976,733,filed on Oct. 1, 2007, and entitled “System for Inducing DesirableTemperature Effects on Body Tissue”; and U.S. Provisional ApplicationNo. 60/976,752, filed on Oct. 1, 2007, entitled “Inducing DesirableTemperature Effects On Body Tissue”, the full disclosures of which areincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is generally related to medical devices, systems,and methods. In exemplary embodiments, the invention providescatheter-based diagnosis and/or treatment for luminal diseases,particularly for atherosclerotic plaque, vulnerable or “hot” plaque, andthe like. The structures of the invention allow guided eccentricatherosclerotic material analysis, remodeling and/or removal, oftenusing both electrical diagnostic signals and electrosurgical energy.

Physicians use catheters to gain access to and repair interior tissuesof the body, particularly within the lumens of the body such as bloodvessels. For example, balloon angioplasty and other catheters often areused to open arteries that have been narrowed due to atheroscleroticdisease.

Balloon angioplasty is often effective at opening an occluded bloodvessel, but the trauma associated with balloon dilation can imposesignificant injury, so that the benefits of balloon dilation may belimited in time. Stents are commonly used to extend the beneficialopening of the blood vessel.

Stenting, in conjunction with balloon dilation, is often the preferredtreatment for atherosclersis. In stenting, a collapsed metal frameworkis mounted on a balloon catheter which is introduced into the body. Thestent is manipulated into the site of occlusion and expanded in place bythe dilation of the underlying balloon. Stenting has gained widespreadacceptance, and produces generally acceptable results in many cases.Along with treatment of blood vessels (particularly the coronaryarteries), stents can also be used in treating many other tubularobstructions within the body, such as for treatment of reproductive,gastrointestinal, and pulmonary obstructions.

Restenosis or a subsequent narrowing of the body lumen after stentinghas occurred in a significant number of cases. More recently, drugcoated stents (such as Johnson and Johnson's Cypher™ stent, theassociated drug comprising Sirolimus™) have demonstrated a markedlyreduced restenosis rate, and others are developing and commercializingalternative drug eluting stents. In addition, work has also beeninitiated with systemic drug delivery (intravenous or oral) which mayalso improve the procedural angioplasty success rates.

While drug eluting stents appear to offer significant promise fortreatment of atherosclerosis in many patients, there remain many caseswhere stents either cannot be used or present significant disadvantages.Generally, stenting leaves an implant in the body. Such implants canpresent risks, including mechanical fatigue, corrosion, and the like,particularly when removal of the implant is difficult and involvesinvasive surgery. Stenting may have additional disadvantages fortreating diffuse artery disease, for treating bifurcations, for treatingareas of the body susceptible to crush, and for treating arteriessubject to torsion, elongation, and shortening.

A variety of modified restenosis treatments or restenosis-inhibitingocclusion treatment modalities have also been proposed, includingintravascular radiation, cryogenic treatments, ultrasound energy, andthe like, often in combination with balloon angioplasty and/or stenting.While these and different approaches show varying degrees of promise fordecreasing the subsequent degradation in blood flow followingangioplasty and stenting, the trauma initially imposed on the tissues byangioplasty remains problematic.

A number of alternatives to stenting and balloon angioplasty so as toopen stenosed arteries have also been proposed. For example, a widevariety of atherectomy devices and techniques have been disclosed andattempted. Despite the disadvantages and limitations of angioplasty andstenting, atherectomy has not gained the widespread use and successrates of dilation-based approaches. More recently, still furtherdisadvantages of dilation have come to light. These include theexistence of vulnerable plaque, which can rupture and release materialsthat may cause myocardial infarction or heart attack.

In light of the above, it would be advantageous to provide new devices,systems, and methods for diagnosing, characterizing, remodeling, and/orremoval of atherosclerotic material and occlusions of the lumens of thebody, and particularly of the blood vessels. It would further bedesirable to avoid significant cost or complexity while providingstructures which could both characterize and remodel or remove plaquesand other occlusive materials without having to resort to the trauma ofdilation, and to allow the opening of blood vessels and other bodylumens which are not suitable for stenting. It would also be helpful ifdiagnosing and treating systems could provide some feedback on theprogress of treatment.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally provides improved devices, systems, andmethods for treating diseased and other target tissues, optionally fortreatment of diseases of body lumens. Embodiments of the invention mayallow analysis and/or treatment of the materials along these bodylumens, optionally allowing plaque and other lesions to be characterizedusing a variable frequency electrical power or signal source. Byradially expanding an electrode array-supporting basket within (forexample) a blood vessel, and by monitoring electrical characteristics(and particularly frequency, impedance phase angle, and impedancemagnitude) of circuits formed using selected electrodes of the array,plaque, fibrous vulnerable or “hot” plaques, healthy tissues, treatedtissues, and/or the like along the blood vessel may be locally analyzed.Optionally, the same electrodes may be used to selectively (and ofteneccentrically) treat the tissues per the results of the analysis. Tissuesignatures may be used to characterize and/or selectively treat tissueswith a range of energy modalities, including RF energy, microwaveenergy, ultrasound energy, light energy, and/or the like.

Embodiments of the invention may employ electrical energy to selectivelyheat target tissues and/or other structures. For example, circuitfrequency and phase angle may be selected to compensate for a phaseangle of the target tissue, with the collateral tissues often having asignificantly different characteristic phase angle at the selectedfrequency. More generally, the electrical energy waveforms, applicationcycles, potentials, delivery systems, and the like may be tailored tohelp direct therapeutic energy into atheroma and other disease tissuesof the vasculature while inhibiting injury to collateral tissuestructures. As the electrical characteristics of at least some diseasedtissues (and particularly their impedances relative to those ofsurrounding tissues) may tend to urge known electrosurgical treatmentenergy into healthy adjacent tissues, such tailoring may improve theefficacy of luminal therapies and/or decrease collateral tissue damage.Exemplary treatment systems and methods for physical targeting (forexample, axial and/or radial targeting of occlusive tissues from withina blood vessel) and/or frequency targeting may make use of diseaselocalization information (for example, from intravascular imaging,impedance measurement, or the like) and may optionally employ cooling toprotect at least some tissues along a luminal wall.

In a first aspect, the invention provides a method for treating a targettissue in a patient body. The method comprises energizing a circuit witha tissue characterizing energy. Included in the circuit are both thetarget tissue and a collateral tissue. The target tissue ischaracterized by measuring an impedance and a phase angle of the circuitwhile the circuit is energized with the characterization energy. Anappropriate form of treatment energy is determined from the measuredphase angle of the circuit. The circuit is energized with the treatmentenergy to treat the target tissue.

Characterization of the target tissue will often include measuring atleast one phase angle and impedance magnitude at an associated frequencyof the circuit. A number of different frequencies may be used, eachfrequency having an associated impedance magnitude and phase angle. Theset of frequencies, magnitudes, and phase angles can be used todetermine if the target tissue is included within the circuit.

The tissues included in the circuit will often be defined at least inpart by positioning electrodes of a probe. Exemplary probes describedherein may have a number of electrodes, and the energy may be driven ina bipolar manner between selected electrodes of the probe. The probe mayalso be moved to align the electrodes with the target tissue.Nonetheless, collateral tissues will often be included within thecircuit. Hence, driving standard bipolar energy between the electrodesmay injure the collateral tissues included within the circuit. In fact,as standard RF energy may tend to (in some cases) preferentially heatthe collateral tissues to a greater extent than the target tissues,substantial injury or even necrosis of a significant portion ofcollateral tissue may result from such standard RF treatments.

So as to enhance the efficacy of RF treatment while inhibiting injury tothe collateral tissues included in the circuit, the treatment energyapplied to the circuit may have a treatment phase angle whichcompensates for the phase angle of the target tissue. The phase angle ofthe treatment energy may be determined based on the measured phase angleof the circuit, and/or on a characteristic phase angle of the targettissue. As both the target tissue and the collateral tissue haveimpedance magnitudes and phase angles which vary with the frequency ofthe circuit, and as the energy absorbed by these two different tissuesmay vary with their phase angles, the treatment energy may be selectedso that it has have a frequency at which the target tissue phase anglediffers significantly from the collateral tissue phase angle. In otherwords, the treatment frequency may be selected to, for example, maximizethe difference between the phase angle of the target tissue and thephase angle of the treatment tissue. While maximizing the phase angledifference may be beneficial, alternative frequency selecting criteriamay also be employed, such as selecting a frequency at which thecharacteristic phase angles of the target and collateral tissues differby an amount above a threshold so as to impart sufficient differentialheating.

In some embodiments, the target tissue energy may heat the target tissueby a significant multiple of the heating of the collateral tissue. Forexample, the target tissue may be heated by over 1.5 times the heatingof the collateral tissue, in some cases by three times the heating ofthe collateral tissue. In some embodiments, the target tissue treatmentenergy may heat the target tissue to a treatment temperature that is atleast 2° C. greater than a treatment temperature of the collateraltissue. This may, for example, allow the collateral tissue to remainviable while the target tissue is injured sufficiently for passivation,ablation, or to otherwise render it benign. In some cases, particularlywhen standard RF energy would tend to heat the collateral tissue to agreater extent than the target tissue, the selected phase angle andfrequency may instead cause the target tissue to be raised to a greatertemperature than that of the collateral tissue during treatment, or mayeven simply allow the collateral tissue to be heated to a lesser extentthan it would have to be to achieve the same target tissue temperatureusing standard RF energy.

In another aspect, the invention provides a system for treating a targettissue in a patient body. The system comprises a probe having anelectrode for aligning with the target tissue of the patient body. An RFenergy source is couplable to the probe. The RF source has a first modeand a second mode. The RF source in the first mode is configured toapply a tissue characterizing energy. The probe, the RF source, thetarget tissue, and a collateral tissue are included in a circuit whenthe probe is coupled to the RF source and the electrode is aligned withthe target tissue. A processor is coupled to the RF source, and isconfigured to characterize the tissue by measuring a phase angle of thecircuit while the circuit is energized with the characterization energy.The processor is also configured to determine an appropriate treatmentenergy from the measured phase angle of the circuit for use in thesecond mode of the RF source. This heats the target tissue and mayimpede injury to the collateral tissue.

The RF energy source may include separate circuits for generating thecharacterization energy and the treatment energy, with the sourceswitching between the associated circuits when changing between thefirst and second modes. In other embodiments, the source may make use ofa single hardware system for generating both the characterization energyand the treatment energy.

In a related aspect, the invention provides a catheter system forremodeling and/or reduction of material of or adjacent to a body lumenof a patient. The system comprises an elongate flexible catheter bodyhaving a proximal end and a distal end with an axis therebetween. Atleast one energy delivery surface is disposed near the distal end. Apower source is electrically coupled to the energy delivery surface(s).The power source energizes the energy delivery surface(s) with anelectrical energy form that helps the energy heat the material andinhibits collateral tissue damage.

In another aspect, the invention provides a method for analyzing avessel wall of a blood vessel. The method comprises engaging the vesselwall with an electrode of a probe, and energizing the electrode with avariable frequency power source. A frequency of the power source isvaried, and a target plaque of the vessel wall is characterized bymonitoring a frequency-dependent characteristic of an electricalcircuit. The electrical circuit comprises the power source, theelectrode, and the engaged vessel wall.

Optionally, the probe expands radially within the blood vessel so as toengage a plurality of electrodes against the vessel wall. The electrodesof the expanded probe generally define a circumferentially distributedelectrode array, and the electrodes of the array can be supported byassociated struts of the probe. The struts may expand resiliently andindependently within the blood vessel so as to couple the array to thevessel wall within non-circular lumens. An eccentric subset of the array(optionally a single electrode or an adjacent pair of electrodes)adjacent the target plaque may be energized to characterize tissueslocally, and/or to eccentrically remodel the characterized target plaqueusing a remodeling electrical potential. Feedback on the remodeling maybe obtained by monitoring the characteristic of the electrical circuitwhile applying an appropriate variable-frequency signal, either duringremodeling or by halting remodeling at least temporarily.

In exemplary embodiments, the characterized target plaque may comprise avulnerable plaque, and the remodeling may be halted in response to theelectrical characteristics of the circuit. For example, the remodelingmay be halted in response to a change in a tissue signature signal (suchas an impedance phase angle and magnitude at a selected frequency orrange of frequencies), particularly when the change is associated withheating of lipids of the vulnerable plaque to 85° C. or more. Moregenerally, the target plaque can be characterized using tissue signatureand/or tissue signature profiles, with the signature profiles comprisingcurves or sets of data representing a plurality of tissue signaturemeasurements at different frequencies throughout a frequency range. Thetarget plaque may be characterized by comparison of a measured tissuesignature profile to at least one other tissue signature profile, andmay allow identification of the measured signature profile as beingassociated with at least one of healthy tissue, calcified plaque, orvulnerable plaque, with exemplary embodiments able to identify at leasttwo of these. Beneficial embodiments may allow differentiation betweenplaques and other tissues that have not been treated, have beenpartially treated, and been appropriately treated, optionally bychecking changes of a subset of the tissue signature measurements of thesignature profiles (such as at an appropriate frequency or the like).

Many embodiments will be suitable for characterizing a plurality oflocalized materials distributed axially and/or eccentrically about theblood vessel, and optionally for selectively treating the differentcharacterized materials with different remodeling treatments using theelectrodes. Tissue signature profiles may be normalized and/orbenchmarked to a known tissue of the patient (such as a healthy tissueidentified using intravascular ultrasound or other known techniques),and target plaques may be characterized using relative slopes of tissuesignature profiles or offsets between tissue signature profiles (andpreferably both). The frequency range of the profiles will often extendbelow 50 KHz, typically extending from below about 50 KHz to over 1 MHz,and in some embodiments extending from about 4 Hz to about 2 MHz.

In another aspect, the invention provides a system for analyzing avessel wall of a blood vessel. The system comprises a vascular probehaving a proximal end, a distal end, and an electrode disposed near thedistal end for engaging the vessel wall. A variable frequency powersource can be coupled to the electrode such that, when the electrodeengages the vessel wall, an electrical circuit (including the powersource, the electrode, and the engaged vessel wall) can be established.A processor is coupled with the variable frequency power source, theprocessor configured to characterize a target plaque of the vessel wallby monitoring a frequency-dependent characteristic of the electricalcircuit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The patent or application file contains at least one drawing executed incolor. Copies of this patent or patent application publication withcolor drawing(s) will be provided by the Office upon request and paymentof the necessary fee.

FIG. 1A illustrates diffuse atherosclerotic disease in which asubstantial length of multiple blood vessels has limited effectivediameters.

FIG. 1B illustrates vulnerable plaque within a blood vessel.

FIG. 1C illustrates the sharp bends or tortuosity of some blood vessels.

FIG. 1D illustrates atherosclerotic disease at a bifurcation.

FIG. 1E illustrates a lesion associated with atherosclerotic disease ofthe extremities.

FIG. 1F is an illustration of a stent fracture or corrosion.

FIG. 1G illustrates a dissection within a blood vessel.

FIG. 1H illustrates a circumferential measurement of an artery wallaround a healthy artery.

FIG. 1I illustrates circumferential distribution of atheroma about arestenosed artery.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an atherosclerotic material cathetersystem according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates a catheter system for remodelingatherosclerotic material, the system including the catheter of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 illustrates an expandable basket and an associated electrodearray of the catheter system of FIG. 2.

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate an exemplary basket structure havingalternating axially offset electrodes in a circumferential array.

FIGS. 7A-E illustrate an exemplary atherosclerotic material remodelingand/or removal method using the catheter system of FIG. 2.

FIGS. 8-10 schematically illustrate controllers for selectivelyenergizing electrodes in the system of FIG. 2.

FIGS. 11 illustrates an alternative controller for selectivelyenergizing electrodes in the system of FIG. 2.

FIGS. 12A-12H illustrate an alternative basket structure formed withindependent struts having a localized enhanced width for use as anelectrode surface, along with components thereof.

FIG. 13 is a schematic cross sectional view showing the application ofdifferent power levels through different electrodes so as toeccentrically remodel atherosclerotic materials.

FIGS. 14A-14E are cross sectional side views through a body lumenshowing additional aspects of treatment methods and devices describedherein.

FIGS. 14F-14H are cross sectional views taken across a body lumen andtreatment device to show additional aspects of the eccentric treatmentmethods and devices.

FIGS. 15A and 15B illustrate an eccentric treatment device and method ina gelatin artery model.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of an exemplary catheter assembly.

FIG. 17A illustrates physical targeting within vessel by longitudinalmovement.

FIG. 17B illustrates physical targeting within vessel by radialelectrode activation.

FIG. 17C illustrates physical targeting by activation of radial andlongitudinal electrode combinations.

FIG. 18 illustrates electrical impedance versus frequency characteristicof diseased and non-diseased tissue.

FIG. 19 illustrates shielding of high impedance tissue from electricalcurrent by surrounding lower impedance tissue.

FIG. 20 illustrates electrical impedance measurement utilizing multipleradial spaced electrodes.

FIG. 21 illustrates variations of multiple frequency therapy.

FIG. 22 illustrates use of physical tissue characteristics from externalsources. combined with electrical impedance measurements to determine adesired or optimum energy setting.

FIG. 23 illustrates four electrode measurement system distributed acrossmultiple electrodes to measure contact and tissue impedance.

FIG. 24 illustrates flooding of vessel with non-ionic fluid to directenergy to vessel wall and surrounding tissue, reducing losses in nativefluid.

FIG. 25 illustrates one embodiment of a closed loop control system toautomatically diagnose and treat lesions within a vessel utilizingtissue information from an external source such as IVUS.

FIG. 26A illustrates the switching mechanism in an external control box.

FIG. 26B illustrates the switching mechanism at the distal end of thecatheter.

FIG. 26C illustrates the switching mechanism at the proximal end of thecatheter.

FIG. 27 illustrates selective treatment of plaque.

FIGS. 27A-27C illustrate spectral correlations of tissues, as may beused to analyze or characterize plaques.

FIGS. 28A-28D illustrate bench top remodeling of tissue using an animalfat model treated with an exemplary embodiment of the catheter system.

FIGS. 29A and 29B illustrate intravascular imaging and eccentricremodeling with an exemplary embodiment of the catheter system.

FIG. 30 is a simplified schematic illustrating components of the systemof FIG. 2 that can be used for intraluminal tissue and other materialanalysis and characterization.

FIGS. 31A-31J graphically illustrate relationships between phase anglesand impedance in a frequency range as can be use to electrically analyzeand characterize materials engaging and disposed between electrodes ofthe system of FIG. 2.

FIG. 32 illustrate a variety of tissues for characterization andselective treatment by the system of FIG. 2.

FIGS. 32A-32C illustrate changes in a relationship between phase angleand impedance in a frequency range associated with treatment of atissue, along with histological images of the tissue before and aftertreatment.

FIG. 33 schematically illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a systemfor characterizing a target tissue based on a frequency, impedance, andphase angle relationship, and for selectively treating the target tissueby applying a treatment potential that compensates for the phase angleof the target tissue.

FIGS. 33A and 33B schematically illustrate a cell of a target tissue andan associated electrical circuit diagram of that tissue, respectively.

FIGS. 34A and 34B schematically illustrate a region of target tissuecells within a collateral tissue and an associated circuit diagram inwhich the target tissue cells and collateral tissue cells are includedin a circuit with a probe and power source within the system of FIG. 33.

FIG. 35 is a flowchart schematically illustrating a method forcharacterizing a target tissue and selecting a form of electrical energyto enhance the treatment of the target tissue and inhibit injury to acollateral tissue using the system of FIG. 33.

FIG. 36 shows 3 flex circuit structures which can each electricallycouple a plurality of proximal electrical contacts with a plurality ofelectrode surfaces supported by an expandable balloon of a ballooncatheter for use in embodiments of the invention, along with notationsthat can be used to understand an example of multiplexing of theelectrodes.

FIGS. 37A and 37B show an exemplary balloon catheter supportingelectrodes and an exemplary RF generator structure, respectively, foruse in the systems and methods described herein.

FIGS. 38A and 38B show a summary of treatment data of a series ofexperiments described herein, and total number of treatments within doseranges, respectively.

FIG. 39 shows effective treatment ranges of power and time identifiedusing the experiments of FIGS. 38A.

FIGS. 40A, 40B, 41, and 42 illustrate lesion sizes generated from theexperiments.

FIGS. 42A and 42B illustrate histology slides showing embodiments oftreatments used in the experiments.

FIG. 43 illustrates additional lesion size data obtained from theexperiments.

FIGS. 44A-44C illustrate reactance data obtained from the experiments,indicating that the imaginary portion of the circuit impedance can beused to determine when it is appropriate to terminate a treatment.

FIGS. 45A and 45B illustrate experimental test results, showing how anoccluded vascular site (FIG. 45A) was durably increased size.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides devices, systems, and methods to analyzeand/or treat a luminal tissue. The invention will be particularly usefulfor characterizing and remodeling materials along a partially occludedartery in order to open the artery lumen and increase blood flow.Remodeling may involve the application of electrosurgical energy,typically in the form of RF and/or microwave electrical potentials toenergy delivery surfaces such as electrodes, antennas, and the like.This energy will optionally be controlled so as to limit a temperatureof target and/or collateral tissues, for example, limiting the heatingof a fibrous cap of a vulnerable plaque or the intimal layer of anartery structure to a maximum temperature in a range from about 50 toabout 60° Celsius. In many embodiments, the energy will be controlled tolimit the maximum temperature of an outer layer or adventitia of theblood vessel to no more than about 63° Celsius. Limiting heating of alipid-rich pool of a vulnerable plaque sufficiently to induce melting ofthe lipid pool while inhibiting heating of other tissues (such as anintimal layer or fibrous cap) to less than a temperature in a range fromabout 50 to about 60° Celsius may inhibit an immune response that mightotherwise lead to restenosis, or the like. Many embodiments may applysufficient heat energy to heat the lipids to about 85° Celsius or morewhile inhibiting collateral damage through selective application ofheating energy. Relatively mild heating energies may be sufficient todenature and shrink atherosclerotic material during treatment,immediately after treatment, and/or more than one hour, more than oneday, more than one week, or even more than one month after the treatmentthrough a healing response of the tissue to the treatment so as toprovide a bigger vessel lumen and improved blood flow.

In some embodiments, remodeling of the atherosclerotic plaque maycomprise the use of higher energies to ablate and remove occlusivematerial from within body lumens, and particularly to removeatherosclerotic material from a blood vessel in order to improve bloodflow. Ablation debris may be generated by such ablation, and theablation debris may be thrombolitic or non-thrombolitic. Wherethrombolitic debris is generated by ablation, that debris may berestrained, captured, and/or evacuated from the treatment site.Non-thrombolitic debris produced by ablation may not have to berestrained and/or evacuated from the vessel. The analysis and/ortreatment region of the body lumen may be at least partially (oreffectively fully) isolated for ablative or other remodeling treatmentsso as to allow the treatment environment to be modified (for example, bycooling the lumen and/or altering the electrical characteristics offluid within the lumen using cooled fluid irrigation, non-isotonic fluidirrigation, and/or the like), to limit the release of any remodelingdebris, and the like. The techniques of the invention will often provideelectrosurgical capabilities, sensing or imaging suitable for measuringatheroma and/or vascular walls, and/or an emboli inhibitor. Asatherosclerosis may be eccentric relative to an axis of the blood vesselover 50% of the time, possibly in as much as (or even more than) 75% ofcases, the devices and methods of the present invention will often beparticularly well suited for directing treatment eccentrically, often inresponse to circumferential atherosclerotic material detecting orimaging. While the methods and devices described herein allow sucheccentric treatments, the devices can also be used for treatment ofradially symmetric atherosclerosis by selectively directing energy in aradially symmetric pattern about an axis of the catheter or the like.

Hence, remodeling of atherosclerotic materials may comprise ablation,removal, shrinkage, melting, and the like of atherosclerotic and otherplaques. Optionally, atherosclerotic material within the layers of anartery may be denatured so as to improve blood flow, so that debris willnot necessarily be generated. Similarly, atherosclerotic materialswithin the arterial layers may be melted and/or treatment may involve ashrinking of atherosclerotic materials within the artery layers, againwithout necessarily generating treatment debris. The invention may alsoprovide particular advantages for treatment of vulnerable plaques orblood vessels in which vulnerable plaque is a concern. Such vulnerableplaques may comprise eccentric lesions, and the present invention may beparticularly well suited for identifying an orientation (as well asaxial location) of the vulnerable plaque structure. The invention willalso find applications for targeting the cap structure for mild heating(to induce thickening of the cap and make the plaque less vulnerable torupture) and/or heating of the lipid-rich pool of the vulnerable plaque(so as to remodel, denature, melt, shrink, and/or redistribute thelipid-rich pool).

While the present invention may be used in combination with stentingand/or balloon dilation, the present invention is particularly wellsuited for increasing the open diameter of blood vessels in whichstenting and balloon angioplasty are not a viable option. Potentialapplications include treatment of diffuse disease, in whichatherosclerosis is spread along a significant length of an artery ratherthan being localized in one area. The invention may also provideadvantages in treatment of vulnerable plaque or blood vessels in whichvulnerable plaque is a concern, both by potentially identifying andavoiding treatment of the vulnerable plaque with selected eccentricand/or axial treatments separated from the vulnerable plaque, and byintentionally ablating and aspirating the cap and lipid-rich pool of thevulnerable plaque within a controlled environmental zone or regionwithin the blood vessel lumen. The invention may also find advantageoususe for treatment of tortuous, sharply-curved vessels, as no stent needbe advanced into or expanded within the sharp bends of many bloodvessel. Still further advantageous applications include treatment alongbifurcations (where side branch blockage may be an issue) and in theperipheral extremities such as the legs, feet, and arms (where crushingand/or stent fracture failure may be problematic).

Embodiments of the invention may measure impedance of a circuit, andparticularly of a circuit that includes an electrode coupled with aluminal wall or other tissue. Such impedance measurements of alternatingcurrent (AC) circuits will often include a measurement of both a realportion or magnitude of the impedance, and an imaginary portion or phaseangle of the impedance. The impedance magnitude and phase anglegenerated at an appropriate frequency by a tissue coupled to theelectrode may provide a tissue signature. To enhance the accuracy oftissue signature measurements, a plurality of individual measurements(often three or more) may be taken and averaged. By measuring tissuesignatures at a plurality of different frequencies (for example, atabout 100 different frequencies) within a frequency range, a signatureprofile for the tissue may be generated, with the signature profilesoptionally comprising a curve or curve-fit of phase angles andmagnitudes throughout a frequency range. In some embodiments, signaltissue signature measurements may be compared, and/or a smaller number(2-10 or 5-50) of such measurements may be included in a tissuesignature profile. Tissue signature measurements may depend on themeasurement conditions (including the configuration of theelectrodes/tissue coupling), particularly, when the measurements areperformed by transmitting bipolar tissue sensing current between twoelectrodes that are supported by a flexible and/or radially expandablesupport structure. Nonetheless, the relative tissue signatures and/orsignature profiles (particularly the relative offsets between signatureprofiles, relative slopes of signature profiles, and the like) ofdifferent tissues of different patients will often be sufficientlyconsistent to allow the tissue signatures and signature profiles to beused to distinguish between healthy tissue, calcified plaque, fibrousplaque, lipid-rich plaques, untreated tissue, partially treated tissue,fully treated tissue, and the like.

Optionally, baseline measurements of tissues (which may be characterizedvia intravascular ultrasound, optical coherence tomography, or the like)may be taken to help differentiate adjacent tissues, as the tissuesignatures and/or signature profiles may differ from person to person.Additionally, the tissue signatures and/or signature profile curves maybe normalized to facilitate identification of the relevant slopes,offsets, and the like between different tissues. Once sufficientcorrelations have been established between tissue signatures (includingimpedance magnitude, phase angle, and frequency) and signature profilesof different tissues for a number of different patients and measurementconditions, tissue characterization of at least some patients may beprovided without having to resort to other baseline tissuecharacterization methodologies.

Diffuse disease and vulnerable plaque are illustrated in FIGS. 1A and1B, respectively. FIG. 1C illustrates vascular tortuosity. FIG. 1Dillustrates atherosclerotic material at a bifurcation, while FIG. 1Eillustrates a lesion which can result from atherosclerotic disease ofthe extremities.

FIG. 1F illustrates a stent structural member fracture which may resultfrom corrosion and/or fatigue. Stents may, for example, be designed fora ten-year implant life. As the population of stent recipients liveslonger, it becomes increasingly likely that at least some of thesestents will remain implanted for times longer than their designed life.As with any metal in a corrosive body environment, material degradationmay occur. As the metal weakens from corrosion, the stent may fracture.As metal stents corrode, they may also generate foreign body reactionand byproducts which may irritate adjoining body tissue. Such scartissue may, for example, result in eventual reclosure or restenosis ofthe artery.

Arterial dissection and restenosis may be understood with reference toFIGS. 1G through 11. The artery comprises three layers, an endotheliallayer, a medial layer, and an adventitial layer. During angioplasty, theinside layer may delaminate or detach partially from the wall so as toform a dissection as illustrated in FIG. 1G. Such dissections divert andmay obstruct blood flow. As can be understood by comparing FIGS. 1H and11, angioplasty is a relatively aggressive procedure which may injurethe tissue of the blood vessel. In response to this injury, in responseto the presence of a stent, and/or in the continuing progression of theoriginal atherosclerotic disease, the opened artery may restenose orsubsequently decrease in diameter as illustrated in FIG. 11. While drugeluting stents have been shown to reduce restenosis, the efficacy ofthese new structures several years after implantation has not be fullystudied, and such drug eluting stents are not applicable in many bloodvessels.

In general, the present invention provides a catheter which isrelatively quick and easy to use by the physician. The catheter systemof the present invention may allow arteries to be opened to at least 85%of their nominal or native artery diameter. In some embodiments,arteries may be opened to about 85%, and/or acute openings may be lessthan 85%. Rapid occlusive material removal may be effected usingsufficient power to heat tissues locally to over about 100° C. so as tovaporize tissues, or more gentle remodeling may be employed.

The desired opening diameters may be achieved immediately aftertreatment by the catheter system in some embodiments. Alternatively, amilder ablation may be implemented, for example, providing to no morethan a 50% native diameter when treatment is complete, but may stillprovide as much as 80 or even 85% or more native vessel open diametersafter a subsequent healing process is complete, due to resorption ofinjured luminal tissues in a manner analogous to left ventricularablation for arrhythmia and transurethral prostate treatments. Suchembodiments may heat at least some occlusive tissue to a temperature ina range from about 55° C. to about 80° C. In some embodiments, occlusivetissues may be heated to a maximum temperature in a range between about93 and 95° C. In other embodiments described herein, heating may becontrolled so as to provide tissue temperatures in a range between about50 and 60° C., with some embodiments benefiting from maximum tissuetemperatures of about 63° C. Still further treatments may benefit fromtreatment temperatures of about 90° C. Advantageously, the cathetersystems and methods of the invention may be used without balloonangioplasty, thereby avoiding dissections and potentially limitingrestenosis. Optionally, treatments of tissues described herein may berepeated during a single surgical session, or after a month or more(even after a year or more) if appropriate to provide or maintain adesired opening of the lumen.

An exemplary catheter system 10 is schematically illustrated in FIGS. 2and 3. A remodeling and/or ablation catheter 12 includes a catheter body14 having a proximal end 16 and a distal end 18. Catheter body 14 isflexible and defines a catheter axis 20, and includes an aspirationlumen 22 and an irrigation lumen 24 (see FIG. 3). Still further lumensmay be provided for a guidewire, imaging system, or the like asdescribed below. Lumen 22 may be used for sensing and/or imaging ofatheroma as well as aspiration.

Catheter 12 includes a radially expandable structure 26 adjacent distalend 18 and a housing 28 adjacent proximal end 16. A distal tip 30 mayinclude an integral tip valve to seal aspiration lumen 22 and allowpassage of guidewires, imaging and/or restenosis inhibiting catheters,and the like.

Proximal housing 28 includes a first connector 32 in fluid communicationwith aspiration lumen 22. Aspiration lumen 22 may have an aspirationport within expandable structure 26 so as to allow aspiration oraspiration of debris and gasses from within the expandable structure.Aspiration lumen 22 may also be used as an access lumen for guidewires,intravascular imaging catheters, and/or distally advancing intravascularradiation treatment catheters or restenosis inhibiting drugs. Hence,connector 32 may selectively accommodate an imaging catheter 34 havingan atherosclerotic material detector 36 advancable within catheter body14 adjacent to and/or beyond distal end 18, the detector oftencomprising an intravascular ultrasound transducer, an optical coherenttomography sensor, an MRI antenna, or the like. An imaging connector 38of imaging catheter 34 transmits imaging signals allowingcircumferential measurement of atherosclerotic thicknesses about axis 20to a display 39.

Connector 32 also accommodates a restenosis inhibiting treatmentcatheter 40, the treatment catheter here comprising an intravascularradiation catheter. Such a radiation catheter may include a radiationsource 42 which can again be advanced distally within catheter body 14to or beyond expandable structure 26.

A second connector 44 of proximal housing 28 is in fluid communicationwith irrigation lumen 24 (see FIG. 4). Second connector 44 may becoupled to an irrigation fluid source for introducing conductive ornon-conductive liquids, gases, or the like, ideally for introducing gasor heparinized saline. Both first and second connectors 32, 44 mayoptionally comprise a standard connector such as a Luer-Loc™ connector.In FIG. 3 connector 44 is schematically shown coupled to an aspirationvacuum source/infusion fluid source 45.

Referring now to FIGS. 2, 3, and 4, proximal housing 28 alsoaccommodates an electrical connector 46. Connector 46 includes aplurality of electrical connections, each electrically coupled to anelectrode 50 via a dedicated conductor 52. This allows a subset ofelectrodes 50 to be easily energized, the electrodes often beingenergized with bipolar or monopolar RF energy. Hence, electricalconnector 46 will often be coupled to an RF generator via a controller47, with the controller allowing energy to be selectively directed to aneccentric portion of an engaged luminal wall. When monopolar RF energyis employed, patient ground may (for example) be provided by an externalelectrode or an electrode on catheter body 14. A processor 49 maymanipulate signals from imaging catheter 34 to generate an image ondisplay 39, may coordinate aspiration, irrigation, and/or treatment, andmay automatically register the treatment with the image.

Processor 49 will typically comprise computer hardware and/or software,often including one or more programmable processor unit running machinereadable program instructions or code for implementing some or all ofone or more of the methods described herein. The code will often beembodied in a tangible media such as a memory (optionally a read onlymemory, a random access memory, a non-volatile memory, or the like)and/or a recording media (such as a floppy disk, a hard drive, a CD, aDVD, a memory stick, or the like). The code and/or associated data andsignals may also be transmitted to or from the processor via a networkconnection (such as a wireless network, an Ethernet, an internet, anintranet, or the like), and some or all of the code may also betransmitted between components of catheter system 10 and withinprocessor 49 via one or more bus, and appropriate standard orproprietary communications cards, connectors, cables, and the like willoften be included in the processor. Processor 49 will often beconfigured to perform the calculations and signal transmission stepsdescribed herein at least in part by programming the processor with thesoftware code, which may be written as a single program, a series ofseparate subroutines or related programs, or the like. The processor maycomprise standard or proprietary digital and/or analog signal processinghardware, software, and/or firmware, and will typically have sufficientprocessing power to perform the calculations described herein duringtreatment of the patient, the processor optionally comprising a personalcomputer, a notebook computer, a tablet computer, a proprietaryprocessing unit, or a combination thereof. Standard or proprietary inputdevices (such as a mouse, keyboard, touchscreen, joystick, etc.) andoutput devices (such as a printer, speakers, display, etc.) associatedwith modern computer systems may also be included, and processors havinga plurality of processing units (or even separate computers) may beemployed in a wide range of centralized or distributed data processingarchitectures.

Expandable structure 26 is illustrated in more detail in FIG. 4.Expandable structure 26 may expand resiliently when released from withina restraining sheath, or may expand by pulling tip 30 toward distal end18 (see FIG. 2), optionally using a pullwire, an inner catheter body 58,or the like. Expandable structure 26 here comprises a perforatestructure or basket having a series of structural struts or elements 54with opening or perforations 56 therebetween. Perforations 56 may beformed, for example, by cutting elongate slits in a flexible tubematerial, or the basket may be formed by braiding elongate wires orribbons or the like.

Expandable structure 26 generally includes a proximal portion 60, adistal portion 62, and an intermediate portion 64 therebetween. Eachelectrode 50 is mounted on an associated basket element 54 alongintermediate portion 64, with an associated conductor 52 extendingproximally from the electrode. Electrodes 50 are distributedcircumferentially about axis 20 in an array, adjacent electrodespreferably being axially offset, ideally being staggered or alternatingbetween proximal and distal axial locations. This allows bipolar energyto be directed between adjacent circumferential (axially offset)electrodes, between adjacent distal electrodes, between adjacentproximal electrodes, and the like.

In the exemplary embodiment, proximal and distal barriers 66, 68 expandradially with proximal and distal portions 60, 62 of expandablestructure 26. Barriers 66, 68 inhibit any ablation debris and gasesgenerated adjacent electrodes 50 from traveling within the body lumenbeyond catheter 12. Barriers 66, 68 also allow an at least partiallyisolated ablation environment to be established within the body lumen,for example, by replacing blood within a blood vessel with a moreadvantageous fluid environment for limiting charring of the electrodesand the like. Alternative barriers may be provided instead of (or incombination with) barriers 66, 68, including one or more balloonsaxially offset from expandable member 26, elastic lips, or the like. Inother embodiments remodeling may be effected without generatingsignificant thermolytic ablation debris and/or a desired treatmentenvironment may be provided with localized irrigation and/or aspirationflows so that some systems may forego the use of barriers.

Exemplary expandable structure 26 is formed by cutting slots in asuperelastic alloy tube such as a nickel titanium alloy or Nitinol™tube. As can be understood with reference to FIG. 6, expandablestructures 54 may have circumferential widths 80 which are enhancedadjacent an electrode and/or electrode mounting location 82. As can beseen in FIG. 5, the localized enhancement of the width 80 adjacentelectrode mounting pads 82 may be axially offset, as described above.The slots forming expandable members 54, and hence the expandablemembers themselves may, for example, be 0.8 inches in length, with theexpandable members having a circumferential width of about 0.25 inches.A variety of alternative expandable structures might also be used, withsuitable expandable structures often being expandable from a low profileconfiguration for intravascular insertion and positioning to an expandedconfiguration in which radially outwardly oriented electrodes supportedby the expandable structure can engage a surrounding vessel wall.Suitable alternative expandable structures may, for example, comprisecompliant or non-compliant balloons similar to or modified from thoseused in any of a variety of balloon catheter structures. Exemplaryballoon expandable structures may comprise a compliant balloon havinghelical folds to facilitate reconfiguring the balloon from a radiallyexpanded, inflated configuration to a low profile configuration,particularly for removal after use.

The use of catheter system 10 for remodeling and/or removal of eccentricatheroma from within a blood vessel can be understood with reference toFIGS. 7A through 7E. As seen in FIG. 7A, accessing of a treatment sitewill often involve advancing a guidewire GW within a blood vessel V at,and more often distally beyond a target region of atheroscleroticmaterial AM. A wide variety of guidewires may be used. For accessing avessel having a total occlusion, guidewire GW may comprise anycommercially available guidewire suitable for crossing such a totalocclusion, including the Safe-Cross™ RF system guidewire havingforward-looking optical coherence reflectrometry and RF ablation. Whereatherosclerotic material AM does not result in total occlusion of thelumen, such capabilities need not be provided in guidewire GW, althoughother advantageous features may be provided. For example, guidewire GWmay include a distal balloon to hold the guidewire in place and furtherinhibit movement of ablation debris and the like. Guidewire GW may bepositioned under fluoroscopic (or other) imaging.

Catheter 12 is advanced distally over guidewire GW and positionedadjacent to atherosclerotic material AM, often toward a distal portionof the occlusion as can be understood with reference to FIGS. 7A and 7B.Expandable structure 26 expands radially within the lumen of the bloodvessel so that electrodes 50 radially engage atherosclerotic materialAM. Expandable structure 26 may be expanded by, for example, pulling apullwire extending through catheter body 14 to the coupled (directly orindirectly) to distal portion 62 of expandable body 26 (see FIG. 4).Alternatively, an inner catheter body 58 may be moved proximallyrelative to outer catheter body 14, with the inner catheter again beingcoupled to the distal portion of the expandable body. Still furtheralternatives are possible, including withdrawing a sheath from aroundthe expandable body and allowing the expandable body to flex radiallyoutwardly. In at least some embodiments, whether actuated from theproximal end of catheter 12 or simply by releasing the expandable body,the structural members defining the expandable body may comprise elasticor superelastic materials treated to expand radially outwardly, such asby heat-setting a superelastic Nitinol™ metal, polyimide, or the like.In some embodiments, guidewire GW may be removed after the ablationcatheter is positioned and/or the basket is expanded. As atheroscleroticmaterial AM is distributed eccentrically about catheter 12, some ofelectrodes 50 directly engage a luminal wall W, as can be understoodwith reference to FIGS. 7B and 7C.

Imaging catheter 34 is positioned within a lumen of catheter 12 so thatdetector 42 extends to adjacent atherosclerotic material AM. The imagingcatheter operates within and/or through catheter 12 so as to measure athickness of atherosclerotic material concentrically about catheter 12as illustrated in FIG. 7C with measurements often being taken at aplurality of axial locations so as to measure axial variation of theatherosclerotic material AM within the blood vessel, such measurementsoften progressing proximally. In many cases, atherosclerotic material AMwill be distributed eccentrically within the vessel wall as shown inFIG. 7C. It should be noted that no portion of the vessel wall need becompletely uncovered by atherosclerotic material for the measurementdistribution to indicate that the obstruction is eccentric, as arelatively thin layer of atheroma along one portion or side of the bloodvessel may be much different in thickness than a very thick layer ofatherosclerotic material on an opposite side of the blood vessel V. Insome methods, remodeling and/or ablation of all atheroma along one sidemay result in electrode/vessel wall engagement only after treatmentbegins.

In some cases, imaging catheter 34 may allow identification and/orcharacterization of atherosclerotic materials, plaques, tissues,lesions, and the like from within a blood vessel. For example, imagingcatheter 34 may determine an axial and/or circumferential localizationof a target plaque for treatment. Where treatments are intended foratherosclerotic plaques so as to enhance blood flow through the lumen,the treatment may be tailored to provide short term and/or long termincreases in lumen diameter and blood flow. Where catheter 34 identifiesa circumferentially and/or axially localized vulnerable plaque, thatvulnerable plaque may be targeted for a suitable treatment to inhibitdeleterious release of thrombolitic materials, often by thickening afibrous cap of the vulnerable plaque, making the plaque less vulnerableto rupture, decreasing a size or danger of release from a lipid-richpool of the vulnerable plaque, or the like. Hence, catheter 34 may beused to provide information similar to that available through histologyso as to indicate a composition of an atheroma (by identifying andlocation, for example, a fibrous cap, smooth muscle cells, a lipid pool,calcifications, and the like.) Intravascular ultrasound catheters maynow be capable of such atheroma characterizations, and thesecharacterizations may also be provided by optical coherence tomographyintravascular catheters, intravascular MRI antennas, and othercatheter-based imaging systems, or by non-invasive imaging modalitiessuch as MRI systems, and the like.

Suitable imaging catheters for use in the present catheter system arecommercially available from a wide variety of manufacturers. Suitabletechnology and/or catheters may, for example, be commercially availablefrom SciMed Life Systems and Jomed-Volcano Therapeutics (providers ofintravascular ultrasound catheters), Light Lab™ Imaging (developing andcommercializing optical coherence tomography catheters for intravascularimaging), Medtronic CardioRhythm, and the like. Still furtheralternative technologies may be used, including ultra fast magneticresonance imaging (MRI), electrical impedance atheroma depthmeasurements, optical coherence reflectrometry, and the like.

The systems, devices, and methods described herein may optionally makeuse of imaging techniques and/or atherosclerotic material detectordevices which are at least in part (optionally being entirely) disposedoutside of the body lumen, optionally being disposed outside of thepatient body. Non-invasive imaging modalities which may be employedinclude X-ray or fluoroscopy systems, MRI systems, external ultrasoundtransducers, and the like. Optionally, external and/or intravascularatherosclerotic material detectors may also be used to providetemperature information. For example, a system having an MRI antenna maydetect tissue temperatures such that a graphical indication of treatmentpenetration may be presented on the system display. Tissue temperatureinformation may also be available from ultrasound and/or opticalcoherence tomography systems, and the temperature information may beused as feedback for directing ongoing treatments, for selecting tissuesfor treatment (for example, by identifying a hot or vulnerable plaque),and the like.

As with positioning of guidewire GW and advancement of catheter 12,positioning of sensor 36 of imaging catheter 34 may be facilitated byfluoroscopic or other imaging modalities. Location of sensor 36 relativeto expandable structure 26 may be facilitated by radiopaque markers ofcatheter 34 adjacent sensor 36, and by the radiopaque structure (orcorresponding radiopaque markers placed on or near) expandable structure26, and/or by the use of radiopaque electrodes.

By expanding expandable structure 26 within blood vessel V, optionalproximal and distal barriers 66, 68 (see FIG. 4) may form an at leastpartially, and preferably a substantially isolated environment withinthe blood vessel. That environment may be adapted to improve subsequentremodeling and/or ablation by aspirating blood from a port of aspirationlumen 22 disposed between proximal and distal barriers 66, 68, and byirrigating the isolated environment with a desired fluid, as describedabove. When provided, aspiration and/or irrigation may be performed,optionally simultaneously, so as to generate a flow within thecontrolled environment for removal of any vaporization gases, ablationdebris, and the like.

Referring now to FIGS. 7C and 7D, circumferential imaging oftenindicates that remodeling and/or ablation should be targeted to aneccentric portion or region R of the vessel wall W. To aid inregistering the electrodes with the circumferential atheromadistribution, one strut of expandable structure 26 has an identifiableimage, allowing the strut to serve as a rotational alignment key.Registering the electrodes may be achieved using intravascular imagingsuch as intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), optical coherence tomography(“OCT”), intravascular MRI, and/or the like, optionally using externalimaging such as fluoroscopy, magnetic resonance imaging (“MRI”), or thelike. Electronic registration may also be used. In response to thisinformation, RF energy is directed to electrodes within region R. Theseactively energized electrodes define a subset of the overall array ofelectrodes, and selection of this subset of electrodes may beimplemented using a controller as described hereinbelow.

The mechanisms of ablating atherosclerotic material within a bloodvessel have been well described, including by Slager et al. in anarticle entitled, “Vaporization of Atherosclerotic Plaque by SparkErosion” in J. of Amer. Cardiol. (June, 1985), on pp. 1382-6; and byStephen M. Fry in “Thermal and Disruptive Angioplasty: a Physician'sGuide;” Strategic Business Development, Inc., (1990) the fulldisclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. Suitablevaporization methods and devices for adaptation and/or use in thepresent system may also be described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,098,431;5,749,914; 5,454,809; 4,682,596; and 6,582,423, among other references.The full disclosure of each of these references is incorporated hereinby reference.

Referring now to FIG. 7E, as described above, it may not be necessary tocompletely remove all atheroma or atherosclerotic material from withinthe blood vessel. Providing an open lumen having an effective diameterof at least 80 or 85% of a nominal native lumen diameter may besufficient. Remodeling treatments may provide acute effective opendiameters in a range from about 30% to about 50%. In some embodiments,injury caused to the atherosclerotic material with the energizedelectrodes or other energy directing surfaces may result in subsequentresorption of the injured tissue lesions so as to provide furtheropening of the vessel after termination of treatment as part of thehealing process.

To promote long term efficacy and inhibit restenosis of a treated regionof blood vessel V, a restenosis inhibiting catheter 40 may be advancedthrough a lumen of catheter 12, so that a radiation source 42 irradiatesthe treated region of the blood vessel. Suitable intravascular radiationcatheters are commercially available from Novoste™, Guidant, Johnson &Johnson, and the like. Restenosis inhibiting drugs similar to those nowbeing employed on drug eluting stents may also be advanced through alumen of catheter 12, optionally while the proximal and distal barriersagain help to maintain a controlled environmental zone within the bloodvessel, so that systemic drug delivery might be limited or avoided. Inaddition to known restenosis inhibiting drugs used on drug elutingstents, drugs which cause vasodilation might be employed. Knownrestenosis inhibiting drugs such as Rapamycin™ may also be used.

In some embodiments, expandable structure 26 may remain expanded againstthe vessel wall W and/or atherosclerotic material AM while catheter 12moves within the blood vessel, the catheter often being drawn proximallyduring or between ablation treatments. Analogous movement of a radiallyexpanded perforate basket is employed, for example, when measuringtemperatures of blood vessels so as to detect vulnerable plaque insystems now being developed and/or commercialized by VolcanoTherapeutics. Alternatively, the basket may be repeatedly contracted,axial movement of the catheter 12 employed to reposition the basket,with subsequent expansion of the basket at each of a plurality oftreatment locations along atherosclerotic material AM. Repeatedintravascular imaging or other atherosclerotic material thicknessmeasurements circumferentially about catheter 12 may be employed, withthe remodeling and/or ablation often being halted temporarily so as toallow an image to be acquired intermittently during an ablationprocedure. A final image may be taken to verify remodeling and/orablation has been successful.

Referring now to FIGS. 8 and 9, alternative controllers 92 a, 92 bselectively energize electrodes of catheter 12 with RF power suppliedfrom an RF generator 94. A wide range of RF energy types may beemployed, including burst of 500 Khz, different types of waveforms, andthe like. In controller 92 a, a simple dial 96 is turned to point to adesired electrode pair to be energized. A “key” electrode may beregistered with the intravascular imaging system, either electronicallyor by providing an electrode, electrode support member, or attachedmarker which presents a distinct image on the intravascular imagingdisplay. This simplifies selection of one or more eccentric electrodepair along atheroma. Advantageously, catheter 12 need not be rotatedinto a proper orientation to accurately remodel and/or ablate thedesired eccentric atherosclerotic material. Controller 92b includessimilar capabilities, but allows the operator to select multipleelectrodes for driving bipolar RF energy therebetween, providing greaterflexibility in allowing multiple electrodes to be simultaneouslyenergized. Monopole control arrangements similar to those of FIGS. 8 and9 may also be employed, as can be understood with reference to FIG. 10.Patient grounding may be effected by a patient grounding plate, a ringelectrode 2 to 5 cm proximal to basket 26, or the like. Once again, nocatheter rotation is required to orient an active side of the catheteradjacent to the targeted atheroma since various eccentric ablationorientations can be selected through the electrode selection controller.

An alternative controller is illustrated in FIG. 11. This controllerallows an operator to choose, for each electrode, whether to keep thatelectrode inactive, electrically couple that electrode to a first pole(sometimes referred to as pole A) of an energy source (such as an RFgenerator or the like), or to electrically couple that electrode to asecond pole or pole B of the energy source. This controller allows awide range of energized electrode configurations, includingpseudo-monopolar modes where all electrodes except one are connected toone pole of the energy source (pole A) and one electrode is connected tothe other pole (pole B). Each electrode (in this embodiment, up to eightelectrodes) is electrically coupled to a 3-way switch numbered from 1 to8. A switch disposed in the middle position indicates the electrode isnot coupled to either pole, while a switch pushed toward the plus signindicates the associated electrode is coupled to a red RF connector withthe controller. Similarly, a switch pushed toward the minus signindicates the associated electrode is electrically coupled to a black RFconnector of the control box.

An exemplary self-expandable basket is illustrated in FIGS. 12A-12H. Ascan be understood from these drawings, electrodes may be fabricated aspart of the struts 172 from which the basket is formed, for example,using a radially outwardly oriented surface of a localized widening 174of each strut disposed in axially central portion of the strut, as canbe seen in FIGS. 12B and 12E. Each arm may be formed from one piece ofmaterial, optionally comprising a Nitinol™ nickel-titanium shaped memoryalloy, with the struts optionally being laser cut from a Nitinol™ tube.The electrode/basket may be, for example, coated with a high temperaturepolymer such as a polyimide. Electrodes 174 may be formed by inhibitingcoating or removing coating from the desired portion of the associatedstrut 172 (as illustrated in FIG. 12E) so that the electrode surface isexposed for contact with atherosclerotic material. At least the activeelectrode surfaces may be coated with a highly conductive metal such asgold, silver, an alloy of copper, or the like, and the coating willpreferably maintain and withstand flexibility of the basket structure,with coating materials optionally being rolled or the like. By limitingthe conductive electrode to a properly configured (often radiallyoutwardly oriented), electrical coupling between the electrode and bloodor other conductive fluids within the lumen may be limited. The strutsmay be separated from each other and structurally supported with aninsulated material such as ultraviolet (“UV”) cure or heat shrinksleeve, a polyethylene, Nylon™, or the like to form basket 170.

Each strut 172 may be used to conduct energy between electrode surface174 and an electrical conductor extending proximally from the struttoward a controller. Proximal pads for connecting such conductors areillustrated in FIG. 12C, while distal structural pads 178 areillustrated in FIG. 12D. Adjacent electrodes 174 may be axially offsetor staggered as can be seen in FIG. 12F. Insulating coating along eachstrut 172 may be inhibited or removed from an inner surface of proximalpads 176 so as to facilitate connecting of an associated conductivewire, such as by spot welding or the like. Alternative polymer ornon-polymer insulating materials may also be used, including parylenecoatings, while alternative methods for attaching struts 172 to acatheter body may be employed, including adhesive bonding usinginsulating UV cure, embedding the pad structures in polyethylene, andthe like.

Exemplary structures for fixing struts 172 of basket 170 to a catheterbody 180 are illustrated in FIG. 12G.

Referring now to FIGS. 12F and 12H, an alternative indicia providing adistinguishable image for rotationally registering selected electrodes174 of basket 170 to images or other atherosclerotic materialmeasurements can be understood. In this embodiment, an electrode 174 ireferenced as electrode 1 may have a radiopaque marker 182 disposed onthe associated strut 172 i. A strut 172 ii supporting an associatedsecond electrode 174 ii may have two radiopaque markers 182 provide acircumferentially asymmetric count indicator allowing all electrodes tobe referenced without ambiguity. The shape of electrodes 50 may vary,for example, electrodes 174 may be wider than other portions of struts172 as illustrated in FIGS. 12A-G.

Remodeling will often be performed using irrigation and/or aspirationflows. In many embodiments, an irrigation port directs fluid, such as asaline solution, from an irrigation lumen to an interior of the basket.An aspiration port may provide fluid communication between an aspirationlumen and an interior of the basket. One or both of these fluid flowsmay be driven continuously, or may alternatively pulsate before, during,and/or after treatment. In some embodiments, aspiration and/orirrigation flow may occur acutely or concurrently so as to circulatebetween the irrigation port and the aspiration port. Optionally, theflow may carry ablation debris to the aspiration port, where the debrismay be evacuated through the aspiration lumen. There may be coordinationbetween the irrigation system and the aspiration system such that theirrigation fluid may remain confined in an area closely adjacent thebasket so as to inhibit embolization of ablation debris when the basketis expanded within the blood vessel. Such coordination, for example, mayinhibit distal movement of ablation debris, and/or may obviate any needfor a distal and/or proximal barrier or membrane. In some embodiments,the circulation of fluid between an irrigation port and an aspirationport may create an effectively bloodless environment adjacent theelectrodes to facilitate remodeling and/or ablation, imaging ofatherosclerotic tissue, and the like.

Referring now to FIG. 13, controllers of the catheter systems describedherein may allow distribution of differing power levels to differingpairs of electrodes. For example, in response to a circumferentialdistribution of atherosclerotic material AM such as that illustrated inFIG. 13, a controller may direct 50 watts of energy to a first electrode230, 30 watts of energy to a pair of second electrodes 232 and only 10watts of energy to a pair of third electrodes 234. Other electrodes mayhave no energy directed thereto, as described above. In someembodiments, a differing power directed to the differing electrodes maybe provided by controlling the duty cycle, for example, with 50 wattsbeing provided by energizing one or more electrode for 50% of the time,30 watts being provided by energizing an electrode 30% of the time, andthe like.

Many imaging modalities (including intravascular ultrasound, opticalcoherence tomography, intravascular MRI, and the like) may be at leastin part blocked or degraded by positioning the image detecting structurewithin a metallic structure such as a basket formed of Nitinol™. Hence,there may be advantages in producing alternative expandable structuressuch as baskets comprising plastics or a polymer. In light of the heatgenerated by the electrodes of the systems described herein, it may beadvantageous for such polymer basket structures to comprise a hightemperature polymer such as a polyimide. Alternative basket structuresmay comprise HDPE, PET, Nylon™, PEBAX™ and the like. The basket may beformed by cutting struts from a tube of the polymer material.

Exemplary treatment methods are illustrated in FIGS. 14A-14H. In FIG.14A, the catheter system 260 includes a basket covering sheath 262 overan atherosclerotic material detecting and treating catheter 264 asdescribed above. In this embodiment, outer basket sheath 262 radiallyrestrains the basket 266, which is biased to expand radially whenreleased from the outer sheath, as illustrated in FIG. 14B. In someembodiments, the basket may be expanded after the outer sleeve isretracted, such as by pulling pullwires, rotating one portion of thecatheter relative to the other, or the like. Regardless, as the basketexpands within the vessel V, electrodes 50 of the basket engage thesurrounding vessel wall. An imaging transducer near basket 266 of animaging catheter disposed in a lumen of the treatment catheter evaluatesthe vessel V, and the detection/treatment catheter system 264 is pulledproximally along the artery or vessel V.

When the imaging catheter detects atherosclerotic material AM asillustrated in FIG. 14C, an appropriate subset (possibly including onlya single electrode 50) is activated to remodel the atheroscleroticmaterial AM, as illustrated in FIG. 14D, and the open vessel lumen sizeincreases moderately during treatment. The catheter is pulled proximallyto the next atheroma, which is again detected and treated. A crosssection of the limited open lumen prior to treatment is schematicallyillustrated in FIG. 14F, which also illustrates a saline flush orirrigation lumen 268 of the catheter 264. Treatment energy and themoderate increase in the open lumen diameter of the vessel V areschematically illustrated in the cross section of FIG. 14G. After ahealing response gradually increases the open lumen diameter, the longerterm open lumen results schematically illustrated in FIG. 14H may thenbe provided.

Referring now to FIGS. 15A and B, eccentric material removal in agelatin artery model 270 are presented. Prior to the test, the arterymodel includes a consistent lumen 272 as seen in FIG. 15A. A testeccentric treatment catheter 274 having an expandable basket supportinga circumferential array of electrodes is introduced into lumen 272, withthe expandable basket supporting the electrodes in engagement with theluminal wall. Selected electrodes of test catheter 274 were energized soas to eccentrically treat the gelatin artery model 274, therebyeffecting eccentric remodeling of the gelatin model, in this case byremoving an eccentric volume 276 from along one side of lumen 272. Theorientation and amount of the material removed was controlled byselectively energizing electrodes of test catheter 274.

Referring now to FIG. 16, an exemplary catheter system 280 isillustrated. In this embodiment, catheter body 282 includes only asingle lumen, which is large enough to accommodate an imaging cathetertherein and also to be used as an irrigation lumen to bring irrigationfluid to irrigation ports 284. The lumen may decrease in diameterdistally of irrigation ports 284, with the decreased diameter portion286 fittingly receiving the imaging catheter within the lumen thereof soas to direct the irrigation fluid radially outward through the pluralityof irrigation ports. This embodiment may be particularly useful whenremodeling atherosclerotic materials using the methods illustrated inFIGS. 14A-14H, in which mild heating improves vessel size, optionallywithout requiring aspiration.

Catheter body 282 may include a braided shaft in which conductive wires(for example copper wires or beryllium-copper wires) are coated with ahigh temperature and/or high strength insulation material such as alayer of polyimide or the like. The braided wires may be sandwichedbetween layers of materials forming the shaft of catheter body 282. Theshaft may, for example, comprise a plurality of layers of polyethylene,an inner Teflon™ PTFE layer, an outer nylon layer, and the like.

The wires of shaft 282 may be braided so as to inhibit capacitive lossesbetween wires when electrical currents run through them. Capacitivelosses may be decreased when a wire that carries a current from anenergy source to an electrode of the catheter system and a wire thatcarries a current from an electrode back to the energy source are notparallel, but at an angle, ideally being perpendicular. This may beachieved by braiding the wires with appropriate pitch or a number ofpeaks per inch. The basket structure 170 of catheter system 280 may beincluded, with the basket structure being described in more detail withreference to FIGS. 12A-12H. Guide 286 may extend through basket 170 andmay comprise a material transparent to the imaging catheter, optionallycomprising HDPE, PET, or the like.

Still further alternatives are available. For example, another way toemploy RF energy to remodel atherosclerotic material may be to energizea plurality of the adjacent electrodes with differing RF signals so asto employ the adjacent electrodes as a phase-array. A phase array candirect or steer an electromagnetic signal in a desired direction usingconstructive and destructive interferences between signals of adjacentelements of the array. By controlling phases of the adjacent signals, aphase array of electrodes may provide a focused and/or steerable RFsignal.

Along with controlling steering and directionality, adjusting phases ofadjacent RF electrodes may allow focusing of some or most of the RFenergy at a desired depth D inside the atherosclerotic material whileinhibiting RF energy delivery between the electrode surfaces and depth Dusing constructive and destructive interference between the signals. Forexample, such a system may be employed to preserve the cap of a plaqueso as to reduce restenosis. Inhibiting heating of the cap while focusingenergy toward an internal portion of the plaque may lower an immuneresponse to heat that could otherwise lead to restenosis. Hence,inhibiting heating of the cap may reduce restenosis.

In general, the present invention may make use of highly elastic,expandable structures, particularly of expandable structures formed fromstructural members separated by perforations so as to define a basket.Such structures can conform to an artery diameter before, during, and/orafter atherosclerotic material removal. This expandability allows fordirect contact of the electrodes against atheroma, although the systemsof the present invention may also make use of conductive fluidenvironments to complete an RF energy path, or conversely, usenon-conductive fluid to enhance energy directed through tissue. Multipleelectrodes can be distributed circumferentially around an intermediateportion of the expandable structure, and a subset of these electrodescan be activated to allow for eccentric tissue remodeling and/orablation.

Atheroma may be identified and targeted by intravascular imaging, andthese capabilities may be integrated into the remodeling and/or ablationcatheter. Preferably, the intravascular imaging capabilities will bedeployed in a separate catheter which can be advanced within, andremoved from the ablation catheter. In general, this intravascularimaging capability allows the progress of the therapy to be monitored sothat wall perforation can be avoided, while ideally reducing occlusionto no more than 15% of the overall native vessel diameter (either uponcompletion of the treatment or after subsequent tissue healing). Theablation catheter may further allow the use of localized radiation ordrug delivery for antirestenosis treatments. The ablation catheter mayinclude a relatively large lumen allowing selective use of anintravascular imaging system, a radiation delivery or other treatmentcatheter, an aspiration of debris and vaporization gases, with theseuses often being employed sequentially. A guidewire may make use of thisor a separate lumen, and the guidewire may be removed to allow accessfor the restenosis and/or imaging catheters.

The devices, systems, and methods described above are well suited forapplication of electrical energy that is tailored to target tissues andmaterials along a body lumen.

The exemplary catheter devices and methods for their use describedherein are intended for application in the lumen of vessels of the humananatomy. The anatomical structure into which the catheter is placed maybe, for example, the esophagus, the oral cavity, the nasopharyngealcavity, the auditory tube and tympanic cavity, the sinus of the brain,the arterial system, the venous system, the heart, the larynx, thetrachea, the bronchus, the stomach, the duodenum, the ileum, the colon,the rectum, the bladder, the ureter, the ejaculatory duct, the vasdeferens, the urethra, the uterine cavity, the vaginal canal, and thecervical canal.

As can be understood with reference to FIG. 17A-17C, physical targetingof eccentric disease can be accomplished by positioning of electrodes bymoving longitudinally in vessel until positioned in the vicinity oftargeted tissue. As schematically illustrated in FIG. 17A, axialmovement of a distal end of probe in the form of a catheter 302 within abody lumen 304 allows different axial portions of the lumen wall to betargeted for analysis and treatment. An additional method to physicallytarget eccentric disease in a radial manner is to apply bipolar energyselectively to specific electrodes 306 so as to direct energy throughthe targeted tissue, as can be understood with reference to FIG. 17B. Insome embodiments, radial and longitudinal physical targeting may beeffected by selective activation of electrodes distributed both radiallyand longitudinally on an expandable body 310, as illustrated in FIG.17C.

Frequency targeting of tissues is illustrated in FIGS. 18 and 19. Asgraphically illustrated in FIG. 18, different tissue types havedifferent characteristic electrical impedances that cause the tissue toabsorb energy of certain frequencies or frequency ranges more readilythan others. By applying energy at the specific frequency or range offrequencies that the tissue is more conductive, energy penetrates thetissue more readily. In general, it has been shown that samples ofdiseased tissue exhibit higher impedance characteristics than samples ofhealthy tissue. As illustrated in FIG. 19, in the case where a diseasedarea of tissue 312 is surrounded by relatively healthy tissue 314, thehealthy tissue is likely to shield the diseased tissue from electricalcurrent flow due to the lower impedance of the healthy tissue. Hence,minimal (or less than the desired) current flow 318 may pass throughdiseased tissue 312, and heavier current flow 320 may be seen in lowimpedance healthy tissue 314 when bipolar current is transmitted betweenelectrodes 316. Typically, the frequency ranges in which tissueimpedance varies to a useful degree occur between 100 kilohertz and 10Megahertz.

Frequency targeting seeks to deliver more energy to the diseased tissueby determining the frequency or range of frequencies at which theimpedance of the diseased tissue is equal to or less than that of thehealthy tissue, such as by operation at or above a threshold frequency322 as illustrated in FIG. 18. Energy delivered at the specifiedfrequency or range of frequencies will cause more heat to be dissipatedin the diseased tissue than energy delivered outside of those specificfrequencies.

The use of impedance measurements to determine a location and/or stateof tissue may be generally understood with reference to FIG. 20. First,impedance measurements utilizing an array of radially spaced electrodes330 within lumen 332 can be used to analyze diseased tissue 334.Impedance measurements between the five electrodes of the array, andparticularly impedance measurements between pairs of adjacent electrodes(and/or between pairs of separated electrodes), may differ when thecurrent path passes through diseased tissue 334, and when it passesthrough healthy tissues of the luminal wall. Hence, impedancemeasurements between the electrodes on either side of diseased tissue334 may indicate a lesion, while measurements between other pairs ofadjacent electrodes indicate healthy tissue. The impedance characterizesthe molecular state of a tissue. The state of a tissue can beaffected/changed by temperature: for instance, some of the constituentmater included in lipids may start denaturing at temperatures betweenabout 40C and 85C. At least some fatty acids (such as lauric acids,palmitic lipids, arachidic acids, and/or lignoceric acids) may changephase with treatment temperatures of 45C or less, 65C or less, 75C orless, 85C or less, or the like, and may then turn into a new liquidstate that can move through or between cells and/or be safely resorped.Lesions from which these fatty acids have been melted and from which thefatty acids have been removed or resorped may be as much as 90% morecompact in volume than the pre-treatment lesions including theiroriginal constituent lipids.

If one knows the temperatures of state change for a tissue, and theimpedance of the different states of the tissue, then by measuring thetissue impedance, it is possible to detect a state change, and or toestimate what the temperature is, thereby allowing one to monitor theprogress of the therapy. E.g.: if impedance of a lipid was 100 Ohms, andan impedance of a particular melted fatty acid was 90 Ohms (here usinghypothetical values), and knowing that this particular constituent oflipids changes phase from within the fatty solid to a melted fatty acidat around 85C, then detecting a change in impedance form 100 Ohms to 90Ohms indicates that the lipid turned into liquid fatty acids andtherefore that the temperature should be around 85C. Analysis ofdiseased luminal tissues may use specific frequencies to verify a typeand condition of tissue based on electrical impedance measurement.Normal use will include the discovery and characterization of diseasedtissue using intraluminal ultrasound or other methods. Measurement oftissue electrical impedances over radially spaced electrodes will allowfor verification of the existence of diseased tissue and knowledge ofthe location of the electrodes relative to specific tissue.

Multiple Frequency Therapies and signals are schematically illustratedin FIG. 21. Therapy can consist of the application of electrical energyat a single frequency or at multiple frequencies. Depending on thecomposition of the target tissue and surrounding tissue, the optimumtreatment may consist of a single frequency to target a single tissuetype, multiple frequencies to target multiple tissue types, or multiplefrequencies applied to a single tissue type. Multiple bursts of the samefrequency 336, varying frequencies, such as a continuous burst ofvarying frequency 338, bursts of multiple frequencies 340, and multiplefrequencies superimposed (optionally in bursts 342) may be employed.

Multiple frequencies can be applied in any sequence from any combinationof electrodes in contact with the target tissue or surrounding tissue.Multiple frequencies can be applied as discrete frequencies or can beapplied as a frequency sweep across a range in a linear, logarithmic, orother manner.

An energy Control arrangement is schematically illustrated in FIG. 22.In general, impedance and physical tissue characteristics may beutilized to set the output or treatment parameters. Geometry and tissuetype may be determined as described herein using IVUS or other similardetector techniques. Electrode impedance measurements from multipleelectrodes may be taken. An algorithm of the system processor may choosea correct initial dosage, and initial settings and/or range output.

Regarding setting up the correct initial dosage, the shape and type ofdiseased tissue to be treated is generally diagnosed and characterizedby ultrasonic, optical, or other types of intraluminal sensing devices.Using the multi-electrode approach, electrical impedance measurementscan be used to understand the electrical characteristics ofatherosclerotic tissue of varying geometries and types previouslydiagnosed. Using that data, the initial therapy dosage setting can beoptimized.

Regarding controlling the dosage, the electrical impedancecharacteristics of tissues vary due to temperature variations and themolecular state of a tissue. Dynamic measurement of electrical impedanceof the tissue during application of energy can be used to monitor thechanges in the tissue and the progress of the therapy. A four electrodeimplementation of the electrode system would allow for measurement ofthe electrical impedance of the electrode to tissue interface andtherefore, measurement of the change in temperature of the tissue at thecontact surface and that of the contact tissue.

Regarding determination of proper dosage during therapy, the pattern ofenergy delivery can be a single pulse or multiple pulses of varyingduration separated by resting periods of varying duration. Themeasurement of electrical impedance of the tissue and of the electrodeto tissue interface during energy delivery and between energy pulses canbe used to determine the optimum durations of energy delivery andresting periods. Pre-treatment bursts of RF energy can be applied tocondition the target tissue. Conditioning may be utilized to activateHeat-Shock Proteins (HSPs) in healthy tissue prior to treatment to getbetter protection of healthy tissue. Post-treatment bursts of RF energycan be applied to control the cool down time of the tissue. Interimtreatment bursts of RF energy can be applied to control the temperatureof the target and surrounding tissue between multiple therapy bursts.Energy can be delivered in any combination of amplitude and frequencyfrom any combination of electrodes.

Impedance measurement on multiple electrodes can also be employed. Whena multi electrode design is used it is likely that some of theelectrodes will be in contact with the lumen wall and others will besuspended in the blood or other existing fluid or thrombus, or existingstents, or foreign materials of the like. The measurement of impedanceat various radial locations allows the determination of which electrodesare in contact with the lumen wall and which ones are in contact withfluid such a blood. This contact determination can be used incombination with an intraluminal viewing device such as ultrasound todetermine the physical orientation of electrodes.

Utilizing the impedance measurements between multiple electrodes, thedetermination of the contact status of each electrode with tissue orblood can be utilized to determine if the electrode carrying mechanism(catheter) is in the proper location for therapy. Impedance measurementsbetween multiple electrodes can be used to determine contact quality ofelectrodes to tissue. Poor contact quality can cause excessive orunwanted localized heating or can otherwise prevent optimum treatment.Determination of contact quality can be utilized to minimize this typeof problem.

In some situations the choice of electrode may be determined by acombination of position and quality of contact. Impedance measurementsbetween multiple electrodes can be utilized to better understand whichelectrodes are in better contact or a better position to treat aspecific area or lesion.

In some situations the determination of energy level and frequency to beapplied to the target can be based on quality of contact. Impedancemeasurements between multiple electrodes can be utilized to determinethe optimum energy level and frequency.

In some situations energy may be applied to a single pair of electrodes,between multiple pairs of electrodes, or from a single electrode tomultiple electrodes, or any combination thereof. Impedance measurementsbetween multiple electrodes can be utilized to determine the optimumpattern.

Different embodiments may employ impedance measurement using two vs fourelectrodes, as can be understood with reference to FIG. 23. Fourelectrode systems have been used for the measurement of electricalimpedance in many applications. Four electrode systems are inherentlymore accurate than two electrode systems due to inaccuracies created inthe two electrode systems by excessive contact impedance and electricalpolarization reactions created in the contact area. In the fourelectrode system 344 energy is delivered to the target by two energydelivery electrodes 346 and an impedance measurement is taken betweenthe other two high impedance electrodes 348 shown schematically incontact with the tissue 350 in the energy path. In this multipleelectrode application any two electrodes can be utilized to deliverenergy while any other two electrodes can be utilized for impedancemeasurement, thus forming a four electrode measurement system. A probeor catheter 352 may include a circumferential and/or longitudinallydistributed array of electrodes may be used to contact the tissue, andany four electrodes of the catheter can be configured for energydelivery or impedance measurement. Thus, the electrode array can beutilized as a two or four electrode system.

In many applications it is helpful to know how much energy is beingdelivered to the target tissue and how much is being dissipated in theinterface between the electrodes and tissue. By taking measurements as atwo electrode system and then as a four electrode system the electrodeto tissue interface can be characterized and that data can be utilizedto determine how much energy is being dissipated in the electrode totissue interface and how much is actually delivered to the targettissue.

Measurement of the electrical impedance in two or four electrodeconfigurations can be performed statically utilizing small excitationsignals or can be measured dynamically during the application of energyat the normal therapy levels. Using this technique, tissue electricalimpedance can be measured dynamically during the application of energyto determine the state of the treated tissue and surrounding tissue.

Impedance measurement may optionally be performed in mono-polarconfiguration. It is possible to utilize multiple electrode systems in amono-polar configuration where the return electrode is an electricallyconductive pad applied to the external surface of the patient or thelike. In this configuration impedance measurements can be performedbetween any one of the internally applied electrodes and the externalreturn pad in the two electrode mode or any one of the internallyapplied electrodes can apply energy that flows to the external returnpad while any other two internally applied electrodes is used to measureimpedance.

Regarding temperature measurements, impedance measurements taken priorto therapy can be utilized to calculate a normalized value to be used infurther calculations to determine the change in temperature from thatinitial value. Dynamic monitoring of the electrical impedance of targetand surrounding tissue during therapy can be utilized to calculate thechange in temperature of tissue. In some embodiments, dynamic monitoringor the electrical impedance of interface between electrodes and tissuecan be utilized to prevent tissue charring or coagulation of blood atthe interface.

Temperature change during therapy can be utilized to determine theeffectiveness of energy delivery settings and to determine the conditionof the tissue being treated.

Temperature measurement can be performed by intraluminal ultrasound orother mechanism and verified by data derived from impedancemeasurements.

Use of the systems described herein with ionic and non-ionic fluid canbe understood with reference to FIG. 24. When electrical current flowsin an ionic fluid such as blood filling a lumen 356, at least a portionof the current may pass through the blood when electrodes 358 areenergized. Even when electrodes on either side of a target tissue 360,heating of the target tissue may be reduced by the current flow withinthe blood.

When used in a fluid filled lumen such as an artery, this device can beused in combination with a non-ionic fluid flooding the area 362 todisplace or partially displace the native fluid to modify theconductivity of the environment around the electrodes. This action canbe desirable in order to direct the energy, in form of electricalcurrent 364, into lumen walls instead of through the native fluid,thereby delivering energy to the tissue of the surrounding walls withminimal dissipation into the fluid filling the lumen.

A second purpose of the non-ionic fluid or an ionic fluid may be toprovide cooling to the electrodes and to the tissue on the surface andjust below the surface of the lumen wall.

Electrical impedance measurements at the electrodes can be utilized todetermine the conductivity of the surrounding fluid, thus measuring theconcentration of non-ionic fluid in the native fluid. This data can befed to the control system to allow for adjustment of ionic fluidconcentration to optimize delivery of energy to the target tissue andminimize undesired effects to surrounding tissue.

Use of blood as contact interface is also an option. Blood is aconductive ionic fluid that may be used as an interface betweenelectrodes and tissue to ensure a good electrode-tissue contact and lowcontact impedance.

Closed loop control can be understood with reference to FIG. 25.Impedance measurements over frequency ranges and across multipleelectrodes can be utilized to verify electrode location relative totissue landmarks, optionally by correlation to companion intraluminalmeasurement devices such a IVUS prior to and during therapy.

Impedance measurements using a closed loop treatment controller 366making use of hardware and/or software of the system processor mayfacilitate treatment control. Such control over frequency ranges andacross multiple electrodes can be utilized to monitor and to verifyphysical changes such as tissue shrinkage or denaturing of tissue in theapplication area. This data can be utilized to verify physical changesobserved by other intraluminal observation techniques such asultrasound.

Data from impedance measurements 368 combined with inputs fromintraluminal measurement devices 370 such as ultrasound can be used todetermine electrode selection from a predetermined set of rules of acontroller or processor module 372. This type of control system couldpotentially be utilized in an automatic mode to diagnose and treatdiseased intraluminal tissue.

Data about the condition of the tissue, optionally including temperaturechange, electrode to tissue interface impedance, tissue impedance,electrode to tissue or blood contact, and intraluminal geometry andtissue type from ultrasound or other sources, can be utilized by acontroller as inputs to a closed loop control system 366.

Implementation of electrode switching may employ any of a wide varietyof selective energizing electrode circuits, switch types, switchlocations, and the like, some of which are schematically illustrated inFIGS. 26A-26C.

Electrode switches can be located in an external instrument or externalcontrol box 374, so that one external connector point 376 is providedfor each electrode of catheter of catheter 378, with one wire perelectrode 380 extending to, in and/or along the body of the catheter.Alternatively, electrode switch mechanisms 386, 388 may be embedded in acatheter 382, 384, respectively, either near the proximal end of thecatheter for external switching or near the distal end of the catheterfor internal switching. A limited number (e.g., 4) wires 390 may runproximally of the switching mechanism, while one wire per electrode mayextend distally of the switching mechanism. Connection of discreteelectrodes to RF generator or impedance measuring device can beaccomplished by either electromechanical or solid state means.

Switching mechanisms disposed at distal end of catheter may haveadvantages. If located on the catheter, the switching mechanism can belocated at the distal end to decrease the number of wires in the body ofthe catheter or at the proximal end. In embodiments of switchingmechanism located at distal end of catheter the external control circuitoptionally communicates with the switching mechanism via the same wiresused for impedance measurements.

Switching mechanism at proximal end or other location on catheter mayalso be employed. The switching mechanism can be located at proximal endor any other location on the catheter if it provides advantage inperformance or cost.

Referring now to FIG. 27, the catheter devices 418, systems and methodsdescribed herein will often be used to treat plaques having fibroustissue 420. Fibrous tissue 420 may be heated to a target tissue to atemperature in a range from about 90 to about 95C, which may provideshrinkage of up to about 50%. Lipids 424 may be heated to targettemperatures in a range from about 80-85 C, providing up to about 90%shrinkage. Damage to adventitial layer 426 may be inhibited or the layerprotected by limiting heating to below about 62 C. These and othertemperatures and shrinkage estimates can be determined by appropriateempirical testing or the like, from unpublished and/or published work,or form other sources. Referring to FIGS. 27A-27C, spectral correlationsto diseased tissue may allow tissue characterization using techniquessuch as those described in an article by Tjeerd J. Romer et al. entitled“Histopathology of Human Coronary Atherosclerosis by Quantifying ItsChemical Composition with Raman Spectroscopy,” Circulation 97:878-885(1998).

Referring now to FIGS. 28A-28D, feasibility of tissue shrinkage may beseen in a bench top experiment using a catheter system such as thosedescribed herein. An animal fat tissue model 430 (shown before thetreatment in FIG. 28A) can be treated by manually holding the expandablestructure and associated electrodes of the catheter in contact with asurface of the tissue during treatment with tissue remodelingelectrosurgical energy (see FIG. 28B). After treatment, as seen in FIG.28C and the close up of FIG. 28D, visible shrinkage of the tissue can beverified. Feasibility of the use of intravascular imaging with themethods and systems described herein can be verified by images of thesix individual electrode-supporting struts 428 of the expandablestructure of the catheter in FIG. 29A, as well as by viewing aneccentric void 430 that is created using a benign guided reshapingenergy delivery targeted so as to increase effective artery diameter forbetter blood flow, as seen in FIG. 29B.

Referring now to FIG. 30, advantageous embodiments may employ aspects ofelectrical tissue discrimination techniques and devices described inU.S. Pat. No. 6,760,616 to Hoey et al., entitled “Tissue Discriminationand Applications in Medical Procedures,” the full disclosure of which isincorporated herein by reference. As more fully described in thatreference, tissue identification system 510 includes a user readableoutput device 512, a user input device 516, a processor 520, and a probe522. The processor 520 includes a central processing unit (“CPU”) 514, aDigital to Analog converter (“D/A”), and an Analog to Digital converter(“A/D”) 518. Processor 520 may be included in processor 49 (see FIGS. 2and 3), and probe 522 may comprise any of the catheter structuresdescribed herein, so that tissue identification system 510 may beembodied in system 10.

Referring now to FIGS. 30 and 31A, tissue identification system 510 mayapply a sliding or variable frequency electrical signal by energizingthe electrode with a variable frequency power source 524. Power source524, the electrode of probe 522, and the engaged tissue of patient P canthus generally be included in a circuit, and an electricalcharacteristic of the circuit can be measured at different frequencies.In exemplary embodiments, an impedance (both phase angle and magnitude)of the circuit are measured at a plurality of frequencies within afrequency range of about 4 KHz to about 2 MHz. For each frequency, aphase angle vs. magnitude datapoint may represent a tissue signaturemeasurement, with a series of individual datapoints often being takenunder similar conditions (for example, at a given frequency and withoutmoving the electrodes) and averaged for enhanced accuracy. The tissuesignature datapoints may be measure at a plurality of frequenciesthroughout a range of frequencies so as to generate phase angle vs.magnitude curves representing a tissue signature profile or correlation530, 532, or 534, which may be used to characterize the tissue of thecircuit. The phase angle can refer, for example, to the angle betweenthe voltage and current, and the frequencies at which the datapoints ofthe profiles may vary across the profiles.

The signals used to derive the tissue signature profiles 530, 532, 543will often be driven between electrodes of the catheters describedherein. Conveniently, the tissue included in the circuit may becontrolled by selecting different electrode pairs for testing, with orwithout repositioning of the electrodes. There may be significantpatient-to-patient differences (or even region to region differenceswithin a patient) for individual tissue signature measurements, andthese differences may, at least in part, be caused by the differentconfigurations of the electrodes during testing, different distancesbetween electrodes, and the like. Nonetheless, the relationships (andparticularly the relative slopes of the profile correlations, theoffsets between correlations, and the like will be sufficientlyconsistent to allow tissue characterization, particularly where abaseline tissue signature profile for the patient or tissue region isobtained using IVUS, OCT, or the like. Where a region of (for example)healthy tissue can be identified using IVUS and used to generate abaseline tissue signature profile for the patient, other nearby tissuesignature measurements or profiles can then be normalized to thatbaseline, compared to the baseline, and/or the like. From the offsets,the differences in slope, and the like, the tissue can be analyzed.

Referring now to FIGS. 31A-31J, the relationships between tissuesignature profile curves or correlations can be used to analyze andcharacterize the tissues engaged by the electrodes of the probe. Forexample, a correlation 530 associated with fibrous plaque (seen on theleft side of the graph of FIG. 31A) has both a slope and a magnitudethat differs significantly from that of a calcified plaque 534 (seen inthe right side of the plotted data) and from a correlation 532associated with thrombus (generally between 530 and 534). The offsetsbetween the correlations here encompasses a difference in phase for agiven impedance, a difference in impedance for a given phase, or thelike. As can be understood with reference to the graphical plots, therelationships between correlations may be determined by fitting curvesto the data, by statistical analysis, by lookup tables, or the like. Inexemplary embodiments, tissue signature measurements may be taken by(for example) a commercially available vector impedance meter such as aHewlett-Packard Model No. 4193A, and the correlations may be capturedusing LabView™ Software and plotted or manipulated using Excel™spreadsheet software from Microsoft, or the like. Once sufficientbenchmarked data has been obtained and repeatability under differentprobe configurations has been established, electrical circuitmeasurements tissue characterization without benchmarking of eachpatient may avoid the expense of IVUS measurements.

Referring now to FIG. 31B, along with characterizing different tissues,the relationships can also be used as feedback on treatments of luminalwalls. A fibrous plaque correlation or profile before treatment (towardthe right side of the plot) changes in magnitude during treatment to apost-treatment correlation or profile (toward the left side). Thetreatment here comprised 2 W of electrosurgical energy for 2 seconds,showing that moderate remodeling or partial treatments can be monitored,verified, and/or controlled using the electrical characteristics of thecircuit of tissue identification system 510. Advantageously, once anappropriate frequency or range of frequencies has been determined, theentire tissue signature profile need not be generated for analysis ofongoing tissue treatments and/or characterization of tissues, as offsetscan be readily identified. Such measurements may, for example, allowtissue temperatures to be determined, particularly where the temperatureis a treatment temperature that alters an offset of the tissuesignatures. The energy of the electrical signals used for tissueanalysis will typically be less than the remodeling treatments. Asimilar plot is shown in FIGS. 31C and 31D, with the post-treatmentcorrelation here being after treatment with 2 W for 9 seconds and 1 Wfor 9 seconds, respectively.

Referring now to FIG. 31E, relationships between healthy tissue (towardthe right) and fibrous plaques (toward the left) can be identified fromtheir associated tissue signature profiles or correlations, which differsignificantly in both slope and magnitude. FIG. 31F shows relationshipsbetween correlations or profiles for fibrous tissue before treatment(left), fibrous tissue after treatment (right), and healthy tissue(center). FIGS. 31G-31J illustrate additional plots of relationshipsbetween profiles or correlations associated with fibrous tissues andtreated fibrous tissues.

Referring to FIG. 32 a severely diseased blood vessel with three basiccategories of plaque can be seen: lipid rich (fatty) plaque, fibrousplaque, and calcified plaque or tissue. All may be present in onesample, and may also be present in the diseased tissue of (or adjacentto) one lesion, making the lesion hard to treat using conventionaltechniques. Through the tissue analysis techniques described herein, thecorrect prescription and dosage of energy can be targeted and deliveredto effect a safe and appropriate (and often different) remodeling of thedifferent tissue categories or types, at the appropriate locations ofthe constituent parts that make up each lesion.

Referring now to FIG. 32A, this graph shows tissue signaturemeasurements and tissue signature profile results obtained from a humanaorta specimen, with these results for an engaged fibrous plaque beforeand after treatment. FIGS. 32B and 32C show histopathology slides of thetissue. The cracks visible on each slide may be artifacts of themounting process. The nucleation or voids that show up in FIG. 32C,however, may indicate a remodeling of the tissue itself.

Referring now to FIG. 33, an exemplary system 602 makes use of any ofthe probes described above (or any of a variety of alternative probeshaving electrodes) to characterize and selectively treat target tissues.The system includes an RF energy source 604 coupled to a processor 606.RF source 604 may have a relatively low power tissue characterization RFgenerator 608 and a higher power tissue treatment RF generator 610.Alternative embodiments may use the same circuitry for generating tissuecharacterization energy as for generating treatment energy, with the twotreatment forms generally being applied in different modes.

Processor 606 of system 602 will often characterize tissues using atissue signature profile correlation, as generally described above. Inaddition, processor 606 will determine an appropriate treatment energyform to selectively treat the target tissue or enhance the treatment ofthe target (tissue while limiting or inhibiting collateral tissue)damage. To provide these benefits, processor 606 will generallydetermine a frequency for the RF treatment energy and/or a phase of theRF treatment energy.

Selection of appropriate energy forms for heating of the target tissuemay be generally understood with reference to FIGS. 33 A and B and 34Aand B. Referring first to FIGS. 33A and B, a target cell TC throughwhich an RF current 612 passes may be represented by an electricalcircuit model 614, as illustrated in FIG. 33B. Target cell model 614includes a pair of capacitors (roughly corresponding with the cellwalls) between which there is an inductor and/or resistor. Model 614 mayhelp explain the characteristic relationship between frequency,impedance, and phase angle of a tissue, as cells of the same type mayhave generally similar individual electric circuit models with generallysimilar characteristics. Cells of different types may be modeled usingthe same types of electrical components, but the different cell typesmay have cellular walls with generally greater (or lesser) abilities toact as a capacitor, generally lower (or higher) resistances, and so on.Hence, while there may be significant variation among cells of the sametype, the differences between different types of cells can be sufficientfor the tissues to generate differing tissue signature profiles.

As illustrated in FIG. 34B, were electrodes to be applied on either sideof a single target cell TC, the individual cell's electricalcharacteristics may produce a signature profile having differing phaseangles and impedances associated with differing frequencies. A frequencycould be selected for applying energy to the cell, and based on therelationship between frequency and phase angle, the power applied to thecell could be adjusted in phase to enhance the efficiency of heatingthat particular cell. For example, if at a given frequency, target cellTC has a phase angle of −14°, applying energy with a +14° phase anglecould more effectively heat target cell TC than simply applying astandard zero phase angle RF energy at that frequency.

As can be understood with reference to FIG. 34A and 34B, electrosurgicalenergy is typically applied to a number of cells simultaneously. In agiven tissue structure, a three-dimensional volume of target cells TCmay be disposed within a matrix of different collateral cells CC. Atreatment current 612 may in part pass through both collateral cells CCand target cells TC in series, and may in part pass through thesedifferent cell types in parallel. Regardless, each individual cellincluded in a circuit 616 with a power source 618 and electrodes 620 maystill be modeled as having similar simple electrical component models614. Hence, the target cells 614 included in circuit 616 will be moreefficiently and/or effectively heated by RF energy at a given frequencyif the phase angle of power source 618 is appropriate for the targetcell signature. As collateral cells CC may have significantly differentcharacteristic phase angles at that frequency, they may be heated to asignificantly lower extent than the target cells TC.

The model of FIGS. 34A and 34B is a simplification. For example, alongwith energizing each of the individual cells with electrical RF energy,heat flow will occur from the hotter cells to the adjacent cooler cells.Additionally, the target cells may have differing specific heats,electrical characteristics, and the like which make selective heating ofthe target cells challenging. Nonetheless, by selecting the appropriatephase angle, heating of the target cells may be enhanced. Additionally,by selecting frequencies at which the phase angles of the target cellsdiffer significantly from the characteristic phase angles of thecollateral cells, the selective heating benefits may be enhanced. Hence,referring to FIG. 31F, it may be advantageous to select a treatmentfrequency at which a collateral tissue signature profile (shown in greenat the top of the chart) has a low phase angle while the tissuesignature profile of a target fibrous tissue before treatment (shown inblue in the middle of the chart) has a high phase angle.

A variety of refinements may be included in the structure of system 602and its use. Tissue characterization RF generator 608 may optionallycomprise any of a wide variety of off the shelf variable frequencysignal generators. Alternative proprietary variable frequency RF signalgenerators may also be used. Tissue treatment generator 610 will alsotypically comprise a variable frequency RF source, components andtechnology of which are well known and understood. The treatment RFgenerator source 610 may have a different or lower power than manyexisting variable frequency RF signal generators, so that a proprietarystructure may be beneficial.

Processor 606 may be coupled to the circuits powered by the RF source(s)604, 608, 610 by suitable sensors for monitoring the phase angle,magnitude, and the like to facilitate tissue type characterization.Processor 606 will also often transmit command signals to the RFsource(s) so as to effect tissue characterization, to effect tissuetreatment, to provide a user interface with the user of system 602, tointegrate data regarding tissue types and treatment from system 602 withinformation from other tissue characterization and/or imagingmodalities, and the like. As noted above, the target cell tissuesignature profile may be altered during treatment. Hence, the processor606 may intermittently interrupt tissue treatment to characterize thetarget tissue and/or monitor treatment. Processor 606 may modify thetreatment frequency and/or phase angle in response to measured orestimated changes in the target tissue signature profile caused by thetreatment. Processor 606 may also, for example, select frequenciesand/or phase angles that differ somewhat from the ideal values fortreatment of the target tissues so as to further limit heating ofcollateral tissues, or may select a convenient frequency (such as thosedesignated by the Federal Communication Commission) to limitinterference with radio communication systems, even though alternativefrequencies may provide more selective heating of the target tissueand/or more limited injury to a collateral tissue. To limit interferencewith radio communication systems in general, some or all of thecomponents of the system 602 may be shielded, such as by using thesystem in a room or enclosure which limits the escape of RF signals.

Referring now to FIG. 35, an exemplary method 630 is shown schematicallyas starting with positioning of a probe 632. Prior to, during, and/orafter positioning of the probe for the first time, the probe may beintroduced into the body, electrodes of the probe may be deployed,and/or the like, as can generally be understood with the treatmentmethodology described above.

An electrical circuit is established 634. For probes having a pluralityof alternative electrode pairs, the electrical circuit may beestablished by selecting one or more electrodes of the pair.Characterization and treatment will often be facilitated by positioningthe electrodes near a target tissue and driving bipolar electricalalternating energy between the selected electrodes. Alternateembodiments may use monopolar probes.

A tissue characterization RF power 636 may be applied to the circuit,and an impedance amplitude and phase angle measured or determined 638.The measured amplitude and phase angle may be recorded and associatedwith a circuit frequency, and additional measurements taken until thedesired data have been recorded.

Once the desired characterizing information has been obtained, thetissue can be characterized 640. If the characterized tissue is targetedfor treatment 642, the appropriate treatment energy may be determined646. If the characterized tissue is not targeted for treatment, analternative pair of electrodes of the probe may be selected for tissuecharacterization, and/or a probe may be repositioned to a new location.

Determination of the treatment energy 646 will often comprise selectinga frequency and associated phase angle which compensates for thecharacteristic and/or measured phase angle of the target tissue. Forexample, if the target tissue has a characteristic or measured phaseangle of −16° at a suitable treatment frequency, and if collateraltissues have phase angles of about −3° at that frequency, the determinedtreatment energy may have the frequency and a phase angle of +16° sothat when electrical energy is converted to heat energy, the area underthe superimposed voltage and current curves (when plotted on a magnitudevs. time graph) is enhanced or maximized.

The circuit is energized 648 so as to treat the tissue included withinthe circuit, often to heat the target tissue to a desired temperatureand/or for a desired time so as to provide the desired therapeuticresult. The system may determine whether treatment is complete byrecharacterizing the tissue as described above, or based on dosimetry orthe like. If the circuit treatment is complete 650, additional electrodepairs may be characterized and/or treated, and/or the probe may be movedto a new position. Once the final probe position has been treated, thetreatment method can be halted.

Referring now to FIG. 36, an exemplary flex circuit panel 710 havingflex circuits 712, 714, and 716 is shown. Each of the flex circuitsinclude electrically conductive leads 718 that extend between proximalelectrical contacts 720 and distal electrodes 722. Leads 718 aresupported by a flexible polymer substrate 724, and the flex circuits maybe used in catheter 12 (see FIG. 33), for example, by cutting thesubstrate around and/or between the electrical components of thecircuit, mounting the electrodes to a radially expandable structure 26(such as a basket or balloon), and extending leads 718 toward and/oralong catheter body 14 for electrical coupling to processor 606 and RFsource(s) 604, 608, and/or 610. One or more flex circuits may be mountedto the expandable structure, with the electrodes of each flex circuitoptionally providing a grouping or sub-array of electrodes for treatingan associated portion or region of a target tissue. Alternativesub-arrays may be provided among electrodes of different flex circuits,may be defined by programmable logic of the processor, and/or maycomprise any of a wide variety of alternative electrode circuitstructures, with the sub-arrays often being employed for multiplexing ortreating the region of target tissue with a plurality of differingelectrical energy paths through the tissue.

Still referring to FIG. 36, multiplexing between selected electrodes ofan array or sub-array can be effected by selectively energizingelectrode pairs, with the target tissue region for the sub-array beingdisposed between the electrodes of the pairs so that the energy passestherethrough. For example, a pair of electrodes selected from electrodes1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of flex circuit 712 (with the selected electrodesoptionally being positioned opposite each other) may be energized andthen turned off, with another pair then being energized, and so forth.The firing order might be 1 and 4, then 2 and 5, then 3 and 6. Bipolarpotentials between the electrodes of the pair can induce current pathsin the same general tissue region, with the power dissipated into thetissue optionally remaining substantially constant. This provides a dutycycle of about ⅓ with respect to heat and/or losses at each electrodesurface. The four electrode configurations of flex circuits 714 and 716could be used in a similar manner with a 50% duty cycle. Monopolarenergy might also be applied using a larger ground pad on the skin ofthe patient or the like, with the duty cycle optionally being cut inhalf relative to bipolar energy.

Some embodiments of the vascular treatment devices, systems, and methodsdescribed herein may be used to treat atherosclerotic disease by gentleheating in combination with gentle or standard dilation. For example, anangioplasty balloon catheter structure having electrodes disposedthereon might apply electrical potentials to the vessel wall before,during, and/or after dilation, optionally in combination with dilationpressures which are at or significantly lower than standard, unheatedangioplasty dilation pressures. Where balloon inflation pressures of10-16 atmospheres may, for example, be appropriate for standardangioplasty dilation of a particular lesion, modified dilationtreatments combined with appropriate electrical potentials (through flexcircuit electrodes on the balloon, electrodes deposited directly on theballoon structure, or the like) described herein may employ from 10-16atmospheres or may, surprisingly, be effected with pressures of lessthan 5 atmospheres, optionally being less than 3 or 2 atmospheres, insome cases with an inflation pressure of about 1 atmosphere. Suchmoderate dilations pressures may (or may not) be combined with one ormore aspects of the tissue characterization, tuned energy, eccentrictreatments, and other treatment aspects described herein for treatmentof diseases of the peripheral vasculature.

Still further refinement may be included in the methods and devicesdescribed herein. For example, the energy applied to an inner wall of ablood vessel may be varied axially and circumferentially about thevessel wall in response to variations in the thickness of plaquestargeted for treatment. Where the tissue signature indicates that atarget tissue is present at first and second locations, and where thetissue signature or an alternative diagnostic modality (such asintravascular ultrasound, optical coherence tomography, or the like)indicates that a thickness of the target tissue at the first location isgreater than a thickness of the target tissue at the second location, agreater amount of treatment energy may be directed to the first locationthan is directed to the second location.

Referring now to FIG. 37A, an exemplary balloon catheter structurehaving an array of electrodes thereon can be seen. FIG. 37B illustratesan exemplary RF generator for energizing the electrodes of the ballooncatheter of FIG. 37A. The balloon catheter and RF generator of FIGS. 37Aand 37B were used in a series of experiments on animal models, with theballoons having diameter sizes ranging from about 3 mm to about 8 mm.The test subjects comprised Healthy domestic swine and YucatanMini-Swine. Atherosclerotic disease was induced (Injury & HFHC diet), todemonstrate the ability of a system including the balloon catheter andRF generator of FIGS. 37A and B to deliver controlled therapy to arterywalls. Histology was obtained at post-treatment endpoints to determinethe extent of tissue damage and the appropriate treatment dose ranges.

Two Experimental Branch Options were Included:

-   -   Option 1: Injure swine arteries with balloon/3-5months HFHC        fee/treat with Minnow Catheter/Survive for 0-90 days    -   Option 2: Treat healthy swine arteries with Minnow        Catheter/Swine for 0-90 days

Dose range and restenosis data were additional criteria.

The Target Tissues were Accessed and Imaged as Follows:

-   -   Carotid cut down (to allow bilateral iliac and femoral arterial        treatment)    -   8F Cook Shuttle Sheath    -   0.014″ Cordis Stabilizer wire    -   Boston Scientific 40 mHz IVUS catheter

Catheter systems including the balloon catheter of FIG. 37A were used totreat selected treatment sites. Imaging was also performed using Ziehm,Siemens, and GE fluoroscopes. Additional experimental methods andmaterials included the following:

-   -   Injury procedure (Fogarty balloon overstretch and denudation);        survive up to 5 months    -   Treat swine iliac/femoral artery; survive up to 90 days    -   1-4 treatments per leg (average 3 per leg)    -   Varied power/time protocols

Data Points were Obtained using:

-   -   Pre/Post Treatment Angiographic Evaluation    -   Pre/Post Treatment IVUS Evaluation (majority)    -   Pre Sacrifice Angiographic Evaluation    -   Pre Sacrifice IVUS Evaluation (majority)    -   Histopathology

Distilled Histopathology Data were Evaluated using the FollowingCriteria:

-   -   Inflammation—all time points    -   0=none    -   1=scattered    -   2=moderate infiltration    -   3=aggregating    -   Thrombus—only 7 day time points (n/a on <7 day time points)    -   0=non-fibrin    -   1=focal    -   2=laminar    -   3=thrombosis    -   % Stenosis—begins to form at 14 days (n/a on 7 day time points)    -   0=0-25%    -   1=26-50%    -   2=51-75%    -   3=76-100%

Such distilled data may be among the most representative and/orpredictive of actual treatment vessel results.

FIG. 38A summarizes the experiments that were performed. Certaintreatment sites were excluded from the subsequent analysis based on thefollowing criteria:

-   -   (n=6) device malfunction (e.g. higher or lower power than        intended, electrode delamination)    -   (n=4) bussed electrodes—resulting in much higher power than        anticipated    -   (n=4) procedural complications (occlusions): 2 vessels were        treated but distal vessels remained occlude from injury        procedure (preventing distal flow and most likely resulting in        occlusion of treated sites); 2 tandem sites severely dissected        from injury procedure, most likely treated in false lumen.    -   (n=1) degenerated sample—tissue not fixed properly    -   (n=7) no visible lesion (may be due to under-treatment,        electrode conduction failure)    -   (n=1) diffuse treatment—site treated twice (over-treated)

Total numbers of sites treated at each of a range of different powersand times are summarized in FIG. 38B. Safe and/or desirable treatmentranges or dosages for the animal treatment model are summarized in FIG.39.

The size (depth and width) of lesions generated using different energiesare summarized in FIG. 40A, while FIG. 40B illustrates average lesionsize versus the average energy (forecasted). FIG. 41 illustrates, fortreatments performed with a constant power (about 2 Watts), treatmentenergy as a function of lesion size. FIG. 42 illustrates, for a constanttreatment time (of about 2 seconds), the relationship between treatmentpower and lesion size. A relationship between energy and lesion sizewhen time is held constant (at 2 seconds) is seen if FIG. 43.

FIGS. 42A and 42B illustrate histopathology slides showing tissues of avessel wall, and illustrate effects of some of the experimentalembodiments of treatments on various tissue levels of the vessel wall.

In many embodiments, gentle heating energy added before, during, and orafter dilation of a blood vessel may increase dilation effectivenesswhile lowering complications. In some embodiments, such controlledheating with balloon or other mechanical dilation may exhibit areduction in recoil, providing at least some of the benefits of astent-like expansion without the disadvantages of an implant. Benefitsof the heating may be enhanced (and/or complications inhibited) bylimiting heating of the adventitial later below a deleterious responsethreshold. Such heating of the intima and/or media may be provided usingheating times of less than about 10 seconds, often being less than 3 (oreven 2) seconds. Efficient coupling of the energy to the target tissueby matching the driving potential of the circuit to the target tissuephase angle may enhance desirable heating efficiency, effectivelymaximizing the area under the electrical power curve. The matching ofthe phase angle need not be absolute, and while complete phase matchingto a characterized target tissue may have benefits, alternative systemsmay pre-set appropriate potentials to substantially match typical targettissues; though the actual phase angles may not be matched precisely,heating localization within the target tissues may be significantlybetter than using a standard power form.

Potentials driving a circuit for peak efficiencies in heating of thetarget tissues will not necessarily match minimized heating (or peaknon-efficiencies) of the healthy collateral tissues. No single potentialwill even maximize desired heating, due in-part to the variability inthe tissues in general, and due in-part to the various forms of diseasetissues that may be present within the vessels. Healthy tissue mayexhibit less variability in characteristics (including their phase anglecharacteristics) than the variety of different forms of vascular diseasethat might be targeted for treatment. For at least these reasons, it maybe advantageous to select an electrical potential which is somewhat (oreven very) inefficient at heating of the target tissue, so long as thatenergy heats the collateral tissue to a minimum or relatively lowextent. In fact, a lack of efficiency in heating of the non-targettissues may be the primary aim in selecting an appropriate energy, asthe energy can be negatively biased for heating the non-target tissuesso that damage is inhibited when the target tissue is remodeled, even ifthe remodeling makes use of what would generally be considered a poorphase match to the target tissue. In such cases, the non-target tissuemight be primarily, substantially, or even fully (to the extendpossible) out of phase. Note that treatments of a patient may make useof a combination of phase matching energy to a target tissue for sometissues sites and/or a portion of a treatment, and phase mismatching toa non-target tissue for other sites and/or another portion of atreatment of the same site.

A variety of embodiments may take advantage of the structures andmethods described herein, and may involve one or more of a variety ofmechanisms for efficacy. For example, in some embodiments heating ofcollagen may unwind the triple helix, breaking the intermolecularcross-links of the hydrogen and disulfide bonds, thereby allowingremodeling and compaction to a gel-like state. Optionally, heating maymelt lipids in fat cells, so that the fat cells shrink and the fattyacids (liquefied lipids) are expelled into the interstitial space.Proteins may be remodeled by breaking the ion-dipole, hydrogen, and Vander Waals bonds, thereby leading to the reforming and compaction of thedenatured structure. In many embodiments, these or other mechanisms mayoccur or be initiated very quickly as the energy is absorbed, withsubstantial remodeling often taking place within about 2 seconds ofinitiation of the heating. Histological examination of treated tissuestreated experimentally with the balloon-mounted electrode systemsdescribed herein has found, from 7 to 90 days post-treatment,absent/scant endothelium damage, absent/sparse/mild subendotheliuminflammation, and absent/limited interstitial hemorrhage.

As the energies and powers for characterizing and/or treating tissuesare relatively limited, the power source may optionally make use ofenergy stored in a battery, with the power source and/or associatedcontroller optionally being contained within a hand-held housing. Use ofsuch battery-powered systems may have benefits within crowded operatingrooms, and may also help avoid inadvertent overtreatment. The batteriesmay be disposable structures suitable to be included in a kit with asingle-use catheter, while the processor circuitry may be re-useable. Inother embodiments, the batteries may be rechargeable.

Referring now to FIGS. 44A-44C, relationships between applied power,time, and treatment status of experimental treatments can be betterunderstood. FIG. 44A illustrates reactance versus treatment time for 10electrodes at a single treatment site. The graph may be representativeof typical reactance/time curves for other experiments, and/or thatmight be generated by some embodiments of clinical treatments using thetechniques described herein. Reactance encompasses the imaginarycomponent of impedance, or the resistance of a circuit to AC signals ata certain frequency, and is thereby closely associated with the phaseangle. A composite graph showing a plurality of reactance versus timeplots from a plurality of different subjects is shown in FIG. 44B. Theseplots show a sharp change (and particularly an increase in negativereactance) some time after the start of treatment, followed bystabilization of the reactance. The change or increase in negativereactance may represent a lipid phase change and/or shrinkage of tissuesinduced by RF heating. Hence, when the phase change is complete, thevolume of lipids remains constant, resulting in the reactancestabilization.

The plots of FIG. 44A includes sites from test subjects P06103 andp06104 which included induced atherosclerotic disease, and sites orsubjects from test subjects P06105 and P06106 which were generallyhealth and free of such tissue. The diseased tissue was generallytreated with higher power ranges from about 15 to about 20 Watts, whilethe healthy tissue was generally treated with lower power ranges fromabout 6 to about 12 Watts. These different tissue types generateddifferent treatment reactance cycle profiles, as illustrated in FIG.44C.

44C is a plot of applied power versus average treatment time (in the topportion of the graph), with the number of samples in time averagingshown in the bottom portion of the graph. Each curve (with itsassociated data points) on the graph represents a readily identifiablepoint or time in the treatment cycles, as follows: Blue (identified as“LOW” on the graph and generally found at the bottom of the graph)represents the lowest negative value on the reactance curve of FIG. 44B;Yellow (identified as “Stop”) represents a transition during eachtreatment from a negative slope to a zero slope on the reactance curve;Orange (identified as “Stop 3”) represents the point along the reactancecurve, after the Yellow or Stop point, where two sets of consecutivereactance readings are within a threshold value so as to indicatestabilization; and Red (identified as “Stop 4”) represents the pointafter the Yellow or Stop point where three sets of consecutive readingsdiffer by less than the threshold.

FIG. 44C indicates identifiably different trends in the reactancetreatment cycles between healthy and diseased tissue, and/or between theupper and lower bounds of healthy and diseased tissues. Healthy tissuemay exhibit a decreasing trend whereas diseased tissue may show anincreasing trend. This difference may be due to the increased volume oflipids that are being exposed to the energy when higher powers are used.These larger volumes of lipids may absorb more energy during the phasechange process, and this may explain any increased treatment times forhigher powers in diseased tissue.

Monitoring the tissue reactance and/or phase angle during treatment maybe a viable indicator for an appropriate end of treatment, allowingtreatment to the target diseased tissue to be terminated whileinhibiting injury to collateral tissues. This data also indicates thatappropriate heating times may be less than 10 seconds, being less than 5seconds, and ideally being from about 0.5 seconds to about 3 seconds inmany embodiments.

Referring now to FIGS. 45A and 45B, experimental test results show howan occluded vascular site (FIG. 45A, having an initial area of about 4mm²) was durably increased in size (FIG. 45B, to about 23 mm²). Theseare exemplary results, based on experiments using about 60 sites in 13pig iliac arteries, with the study extending from 7 to 90 days posttreatment. FIGS. 45A and 45B demonstrate these results usingangiographic and IVUS imaging.

While the exemplary embodiments have been described in some detail, byway of example and for clarity of understanding, those of skill in theart will recognize that a variety of modification, adaptations, andchanges may be employed. Hence, the scope of the present inventionshould be limited solely by the appending claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for characterizing and treating a targettissue in a patient body, the system comprising: a probe having anelectrode for aligning with the target tissue of the patient body, an RFenergy source couplable to the probe, the RF source having a first modeand a second mode, the RF source in the first mode configured to apply atissue characterizing energy, the probe, the RF source, the targettissue, and a collateral tissue included in a circuit when the probe iscoupled to the RF source and the electrode is aligned with the targettissue; a processor coupled to the RF source, the processor configuredto: characterize the target tissue by measuring a phase angle of thecircuit while the circuit is energized with, the characterizationenergy; and determine an appropriate treatment energy from the measuredphase angle of the circuit for use in the second mode of the RF sourceso as to heat the target tissue.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein theRF energy source in the second mode applies the treatment energy with atreatment phase angle in response to a treatment phase angle input, theprocessor configured to determine the treatment phase angle input so asto compensate for the measured phase angle.
 3. The system of claim 1,the collateral tissue of the circuit having an associated impedancemagnitude and an associated phase angle for each of a plurality of RFfrequencies of the circuit, the target tissue of the circuit having anassociated impedance magnitude and an associated phase angle for each ofthe plurality of RF frequencies of the circuit, wherein the RF energysource comprises a variable frequency RF source, and wherein theprocessor is configured to determine the appropriate treatment energy bydetermining a treatment frequency at which the associated target tissuetreatment phase angle differs sufficiently from the associated phaseangle of the collateral tissue.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the RFsource, when in the tissue characterization mode, applies a plurality oftissue characterizing energies of differing frequencies to measure aplurality of associated impedance magnitudes and phase angles of thecircuit, the processor characterizing the target tissue in response tothe measured impedances and phase angles.
 5. The system of claim 1,wherein the target tissue treatment energy determined by the processorcan heat the target tissue to a treatment temperature at least 2 Cgreater than a treatment temperature of the collateral tissue.
 6. Thesystem of claim 1, the target tissue of the circuit, if heated byenergizing of the circuit with standard RF energy, can be heated to atarget tissue treatment temperature, the collateral tissue of thecircuit, if heated by the energizing of the circuit with the standard RFenergy, will be heated to a standard RF collateral tissue temperaturethat is higher than the standard RF target treatment temperature,wherein the target tissue treatment energy determined by the processorcan heat the target tissue to the target tissue treatment temperatureand heat the collateral tissue to a collateral tissue temperature thatis lower than the standard RF collateral tissue treatment temperature.7. The system of claim 6, wherein the target tissue treatment energydetermined by the processor can heat the collateral tissue to acollateral tissue temperature that is lower than the target tissuetreatment temperature.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the probecomprises an array of electrodes, and wherein the RF energy source isconfigured to energize the electrodes with the treatment and/orcharacterization energy by sequentially energizing subsets of theelectrodes.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor isconfigured to, in response to a thickness of the target tissue, energizethe probe with the treatment energy so that the treatment energycorrespconds to the thickness.
 10. A system for characterizing andtreating a target tissue having both diseased tissue and healthy tissuein a patient body, the system comprising: a probe having a plurality ofelectrodes couplable with the target tissue; an RF energy sourcecouplable to the plurality of electrodes, the RF source having a firstmode and a second mode, the RF source in the first mode configured toapply a tissue characterizing energy to a plurality of circuits and theRF source in the second mode configured to heat the target tissue withinthe plurality of circuits, each circuit comprising select electrodes andtissue, the tissue including diseased tissue and/or healthy tissue; anda processor coupled to the RF source, the processor configured to:characterize the target tissue in each circuit by measuring a phaseangle while the circuit is energized with the characterization energy;determine which of the plurality of circuits includes diseased tissue;and determine an appropriate treatment energy from the phase angle ofeach circuit with diseased tissue for use in the second mode of the RFsource so as to heat the target tissue.
 11. The system of claim 10,wherein the RF energy source in the second mode applies the treatmentenergy with a treatment phase angle in response to a treatment phaseangle input, the processor configured to determine the treatment phaseangle input so as to compensate for the measured phase angle.
 12. Thesystem of claim 10, the healthy tissue having an associated impedancemagnitude and an associated phase angle for each of a plurality of RFfrequencies of each circuit, the diseased tissue having an associatedimpedance magnitude and an associated phase angle for each of theplurality of RF frequencies of each circuit, wherein the RF energysource comprises a variable frequency RF source, and wherein theprocessor is configured to determine the appropriate treatment energy bydetermining a treatment frequency at which the associated diseasedtissue treatment phase angle differs sufficiently from the associatedphase angle of the healthy tissue.
 13. The system of claim 10, whereinthe RF source, when in the tissue characterization mode, applies aplurality of tissue characterizing energies of differing frequencies tomeasure a plurality of associated impedance magnitudes and phase anglesof each circuit, the processor characterizing the diseased tissue inresponse to the measured impedances and phase angles.
 14. A cathetersystem for remodeling and/or reduction of a target material of oradjacent to a body lumen of a patient; the system comprising: anelongate flexible catheter body having a proximal end and a distal endwith an axis therebetween; at least one energy delivery surface disposednear the distal end of the catheter body; and a power sourceelectrically coupled to the energy delivery surface(s), the power sourceconfigured to energize the energy delivery surface(s) with an electricalenergy form that helps the energy heat the material and inhibitscollateral tissue damage.
 15. The catheter system of claim 14, whereinthe energy delivery surface(s), the target material, and a collateraltissue are included within a circuit, wherein the power source appliesan alternating current electrical energy having a phase anglecorresponding to a phase angle of the target material of the circuit anddiffering from a phase angle of the collateral tissues of the circuit soas to selectively heat the target tissues.
 16. The catheter system ofclaim 15, wherein the energy delivery surface(s) and the collateraltissue are included within a circuit, wherein the power source appliesan alternating current electrical energy having a phase angle that ismismatched to a phase angle of the collateral tissues of the circuit soas to limit total power applied to the collateral tissues.
 17. Thecatheter system of claim 15, the body lumen comprising a blood vessel,wherein the power source is configured to inhibit delivery of the energyfrom the energy delivery surface so as to limit heating of anadventitial layer of the blood vessel.
 18. The catheter system of claim15, wherein the power source is configured to limit a heating timeduring which the energy is delivered through the energy deliverysurfaces to below about 10 seconds.
 19. The catheter system of claim 15,wherein the power source is an alternative current electrical powersource, wherein the power source, energy delivery surface(s) and targettissue are included within a circuit when the system is in use, andwherein the processor is configured to inhibit heating in response tophase angle of the circuit, the phase angle changing during remodelingso as to be indicative of effective completion of the remodeling of thetarget tissue of the circuit.
 20. The catheter system of claim 19,wherein the processor inhibits heating, during use, in response to achange in the phase angle induced by application of the energy beingless than a threshold change.